Recipient centric messaging system and protocols to implement it over data networks

ABSTRACT

A method of communicating messages between a sender and a recipient using a communications protocol over a data network, which includes: (a) receiving communication preferences specified by the recipient that includes constraints required to be met for delivery of a message, (ii) publishing the profile with visible preferences from the communication preferences of the recipient when the sender selects the recipient to send the message, (iii) processing a request received from the sender to send the message to the recipient, (iv) generating a customized message form based on the communication preferences of the recipient to enable the sender to compose the message, (v) providing an indication to the sender if any of the constraints are not met, and (vi) delivering the message to the recipient when the constraints specified by the recipient and any constraints applied by a messaging system are met by the message.

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

The embodiments herein generally relate to information andcommunications technology, and more particularly to a recipient centricmessaging system and protocols used to implement the recipient centricmessaging system over data networks.

Description of the Related Art

Communication is fundamental to how humans function in social andbusiness settings. Electronic devices are prominently used forcommunication over data networks. A data network is a telecommunicationnetwork that allows electronic devices to exchange data with each otheralong network links or data connections that are established usingeither wired or wireless media. The best-known data network is theInternet. The Internet has brought about a revolution in communicationby enabling synchronous as well as asynchronous communication.

One of the oldest forms of asynchronous communication is email, which isparticularly prevalent among first generation Internet users and isoften used as a preferred form of communication, particularly at theworkplace. Email is sender centric in that once a sender has arecipient's address, he/she can send any type of message or any numberof messages to that recipient. In email, there is no way for therecipient to control the content of received messages (e.g. attachments,images, etc.). Email is very easy to access and there is no cost to sendbulk messages, but as a result, low-quality content, irrelevant, and/orinappropriate messages get sent, which recipients are responsible forfiltering out. Hence it has become a huge challenge for most of us toprioritize and focus on the emails that deserve our attention over theones that don't. Since each of us has a limited amount of time andattention, those of us who are unable to prioritize end up being lessproductive at work and/or losing control of our work-life balance or endup missing on important messages that get misclassified as spam.

There are numerous email client-apps and free email services available,and many of them have sophisticated spam filtering techniques to helpusers with this deluge of email but they are still noisy. Furthermore,even legitimate messages can be lost while filtering spam. The SimpleMail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is the Internet standard used to carryemail. In the process of transporting email messages between systems,the SMTP communicates delivery parameters using a message envelope thatis separate from the message (e.g., header and body) itself. Althoughelectronic mail servers and other mail transfer agents use SMTP to sendand receive mail messages, user-level client mail applications typicallyuse SMTP only for sending messages to a mail server for relaying. Forreceiving messages, client applications usually use protocols such asPOP3 or IMAP.

Although proprietary systems (e.g., Microsoft Exchange and IBM Notes)and webmail systems (e.g., Outlook.com, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail) use theirown non-standard protocols to access mail box accounts on their own mailservers, they use SMTP when sending or receiving email from outsidetheir own systems. Current email protocols and systems have no way ofenforcing constraints on messages since the existing protocols (e.g.SMTP, POP, IMAP and MAPI) are optimized to make sending messages easyand any email system has to comply with these protocols in order to sendor receive email from outside their own systems. Given the large numberof existing implementations of email clients, adding new protocols ontop of the existing ones is very difficult. The power of email is itsubiquity and the variety of email clients that one can use, but thissame variety makes it very challenging to change the email protocols.Once the email address is compromised to spammers, the only solution isto change the email address. At the same time, people often make it hardto find their email address to avoid getting irrelevant messages, whichmakes for the opposite challenge.

Professional networks like LinkedIn allow users to freely message peoplewithin their own professional networks, but impose restrictions onmessaging people outside their network. Their business model is based onrelaxing these restrictions by paying the third party a fee (e.g., asubscription). Nowadays digital advertising has become pervasive. It isembedded within websites, within feeds of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitteretc., within news sites, within videos on YouTube, and so on. All ofthese advertisements are seeking your attention and your time and tryingto influence you. The third party run websites claim to provide you withfree services, (e.g., free news articles, free ways to store your photosand connect with your friends, free videos, and so on) in return foryour attention and your time. Almost all of the revenue generated fromadvertising is, however, typically kept by the company providing theservice, despite your contribution as a user by providing relevantcontent and your profile information that keeps other users interestedin spending time on these websites. Many of these companies have becomehugely profitable, like Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn.

The business model associated with such free-services and advertisinghas recently come into question in terms of the negative implications ithas for the future of society. One book on the topic is “Who Owns theFuture?” by Jaron Lanier. He posits that the middle class isincreasingly disenfranchised from online economies. By convincing usersto give away valuable information about themselves in exchange for freeservices, firms can accrue large amounts of data at virtually no cost.Lanier calls these firms “Siren Servers,” alluding to the Sirens ofUlysses. Instead of paying each individual for their contribution to thedata pool, the Siren Servers concentrate wealth in the hands of the fewwho control the data centers.

Further, since people are on multiple web sites, and each site has theirown communication system, people need to manage their communication onmultiple sites which leads to a fragmentation of time and attention. Forexample, an influential might get hundreds of messages per day acrossmultiple communication channels with asks on his attention such asreview requests, speaking engagement requests etc. and have full timestaff to handle such requests. Many times messages might be lost if theinfluential did not check the message on the particular channel.Engineers might hear from recruiters more than ten times a week, butmany of these messages might go to an email address that they don'tcheck often.

Different people are likely to receive very different amounts ofmessages depending on where they live, their income level, their profileinformation etc. Job seekers might be open to receiving as manyopportunities as possible. A large number of people might receive veryfew messages omen might be open to receiving relevant messages on siteslike Quora, but many of them are bombarded with inappropriate messages.This is especially true if they have a photo on their profile where mensend them dating requests etc. Accordingly, there remain a need for acommunication system that is (i) flexible and well-designed and providesa single place to check and reply to messages from people outside theirsocial network and (ii) addresses concerns and needs of a multitude ofusers across different segments in a way that they are comfortable withhaving a public communication address.

SUMMARY

In view of the foregoing, an embodiment herein provides a method ofcommunicating at least one message between a sender and a recipientusing a communications protocol over a data network through a recipientcentric messaging system. The method includes: (a) receivingcommunication preferences specified by the recipient that includescomputer interpretable constraints required to be met for delivery of afirst message and human interpreted constraints when the recipientcreates or updates a profile on the recipient centric messaging system,(ii) publishing the profile with a set of visible preferences from thecommunication preferences of the recipient that are visible to thesender when the sender selects the recipient to send a message, (iii)processing a request received from the sender to send the first messageto the recipient, (iv) generating a customized message form based on thecommunication preferences of the recipient to enable the sender tocompose the first message to comply with the communication preferences,(v) providing an indication to the sender if any of the constraints arenot met, and (vi) delivering the first message to the recipient if andonly if all the computer interpretable constraints specified in thecommunication preferences of the recipient and any constraints appliedby the recipient centric messaging system are met by the first message.

In one embodiment, the communication preferences include multiplecategories of communications that are set up by the recipient based on(a) properties of senders, or (b) properties of communicated content.The different constraints are specified by the recipient for differentcategories of communications.

In another embodiment, the communications preferences are specified as alogic formula with (a) AND, (b) OR, and (c) NOT operators separatingconstraints, and the communications preferences includes at least oneof: (i) a limit on a number of characters in the message, (ii) aspecification on whether images or attachments are allowed or not, (iii)a compensation amount that is required for delivery of the message, (iv)a threshold reputation score of the sender required for delivery of themessage, or (v) a volume of message traffic that is received by therecipient that is associated with a category of communication selectedfrom the different categories of communications. In yet anotherembodiment, the compensation amount is suggested by the recipientcentric messaging system based on at least one of (i) amounts associatedwith existing messages received by the recipient and priorities of theexisting messages in order to increase a priority of the message for therecipient, (ii) one or more properties of content associated with themessage. In yet another embodiment, the one or more properties ofcontent includes a length of a video that is attached with the message,or (iii) an amount of attention required by the recipient.

In yet another embodiment, the method further includes the step ofrequesting the sender to certify that at least visible preferences outof the human interpreted preferences are satisfied by the message beforesending the message. If the recipient reports that the sender haswrongly certified at least one of the visible preferences, the recipientcentric messaging system blocks the sender from sending further messagesto the recipient, or reduces at least one of (a) a reputation score ofthe sender, or (b) privileges of the sender. In yet another embodiment,the privileges include free messages provided to the recipient.

In yet another embodiment, the method further includes the step ofallowing a limited number of free messages within a given time period ifthe sender and the recipient (a) share the same alma mater, (b) orpreviously worked for the same employer.

In yet another embodiment, the constraints applied by the recipientcentric messaging system includes (a) a limit to a number of messagesthat the sender can send without a compensation amount. In yet anotherembodiment, the number of messages that are allowed to be sent withoutthe compensation amount is determined based on (a) a reputation score ofthe sender, or (b) a regulation applicable to the recipient forreceiving compensation.

In yet another embodiment, the communication preferences includesmultiple categories of communications that are set up by the recipientbased on (a) properties of senders, or (b) properties of communicatedcontent. In yet another embodiment, the recipient specifies differentconstraints for different categories of communications.

In yet another embodiment, the communication preferences include anindication that one or more of the constraints are not enforced on oneor more senders or types of senders.

In yet another embodiment, the request is received from the sender tosend the first message when the sender selects a URL of a uniquecommunication address associated with the recipient within the recipientcentric messaging system from a source outside of the recipient centricmessaging system.

In yet another embodiment, the method includes the steps of: (a)verifying whether the sender is logged on to the recipient centricmessaging system or not, and (b) enabling the sender to login to therecipient centric messaging system if the sender is not already loggedin to the recipient centric messaging system.

In yet another embodiment, the recipient centric messaging systemautomatically captures a URL of the source as metadata to be attached tothe first message, and generates the customized message form based onthe communication preferences of the recipient on selecting the URL oncethe sender is logged in to the recipient centric messaging system.

In yet another embodiment, the method further includes the step offiltering and classifying the messages in an inbox of the recipient inthe recipient centric messaging system based on the URL of the sourceoutside of the recipient centric messaging system.

In yet another embodiment, the method further includes the steps of: (a)delivering the first message to the recipient if and only if a minimumcompensation amount is attached with the first message, and (b)returning at least a part of the compensation amount to the sender whenthe recipient does not send a reply to the message within a predefinedperiod of time.

In yet another embodiment, the recipient centric messaging system doesnot deliver the first message to the recipient if a reputation score ofthe sender is lesser than the threshold reputation score specified inthe communication preferences.

In yet another embodiment, the method further includes the step ofverifying the message and when at least one of the constraints specifiedin the communication preferences or the constraints specified by therecipient centric messaging system is not met by the message, notdelivering the message, notifying the sender that at least one of theconstraints is not met, and enabling the sender to modify the message tomeet the constraints.

In yet another embodiment, the method further includes the steps of: (a)processing a first reply from the recipient to the first message, and(b) crediting a first compensation amount associated with the firstmessage by the sender to the recipient only when the recipient sends thefirst reply to the sender.

In yet another embodiment, the method further includes the steps of: (a)processing a request from the recipient to end a conversation betweenthe sender and the recipient, and (b) disabling an option for the senderto reply to or to send another message in a current conversation threadthat includes the first message and the first reply in response to therequest to end the conversation.

In yet another embodiment, the method further includes the steps of: (i)processing a second message from the sender to the recipient, (ii)crediting a second compensation amount associated with the secondmessage by the sender to a payment recipient specified by the recipientin the communication preferences only when the recipient sends a secondreply to the sender, and (iii) delivering the second message to therecipient if and only if all the constraints specified in thecommunication preferences of the recipient and any constraints appliedby the recipient centric messaging system are met by the second message.

In yet another embodiment, the recipient centric messaging system isintegrated with an email service to access features of the recipientcentric messaging system through the email service.

In yet another embodiment, the method further include the step ofnotifying the recipient about the first message by sending an email whenthe recipient receives the first message on the recipient centricmessaging system from the sender. In yet another embodiment, therecipient centric messaging system sends one notification for aplurality of emails that are specific to the recipient.

In yet another embodiment, the method further includes the step ofproviding an option to the recipient to send an email reply to the firstmessage directly from the email service using a reply button that isassociated with the email and a protocol. In yet another embodiment, theemail reply first goes to an email proxy server and flows through therecipient centric messaging system when the recipient selects the replybutton.

In yet another embodiment, the email proxy server receives the emailfrom an email service and parses (a) details of the recipient within therecipient centric messaging system, and (b) a type of message receivedfrom the sender. In yet another embodiment, the email proxy serverfurther (a) identifies what message the email is in response to, (b)decides whether any compensation is required to send a reply, and (c)generates an appropriate application programming interface to composeand send the reply to the received email.

In yet another embodiment, the method further includes the step ofdeleting a message from the recipient centric messaging system inresponse to a selection of a reject button that is associated with therecipient centric messaging system. In yet another embodiment, therecipient is not credited any compensation attached with the messagewhen the message is rejected.

In another aspect, one or more non-transitory computer readable storagemediums storing one or more sequences of instructions, which whenexecuted by one or more processors, causes communicating at least onemessage between a sender and a recipient using a communications protocolover a data network through a recipient centric messaging system, byperforming the steps of: a) receiving communication preferencesspecified by the recipient that includes computer interpretableconstraints required to be met for delivery of a first message and humaninterpreted constraints when the recipient creates or updates a profileon the recipient centric messaging system, (ii) publishing the profilewith a set of visible preferences from the communication preferences ofthe recipient that are visible to the sender when the sender selects therecipient to send a message, (iii) processing a request received fromthe sender to send the first message to the recipient, (iv) generating acustomized message form based on the communication preferences of therecipient to enable the sender to compose the first message to complywith the communication preferences, (v) providing an indication to thesender if any of the constraints are not met, and (vi) delivering thefirst message to the recipient if and only if all the computerinterpretable constraints specified in the communication preferences ofthe recipient and any constraints applied by the recipient centricmessaging system are met by the first message.

In one embodiment, the steps further comprise requesting the sender tocertify that at least visible preferences out of the human interpretedpreferences are satisfied by the message before sending the message. Ifthe recipient reports that the sender has wrongly certified at least oneof the visible preferences, the recipient centric messaging systemblocks the sender from sending further messages to the recipient, orreduces at least one of (a) a reputation score of the sender, or (b)privileges of the sender. In another embodiment, the privileges includefree messages provided to the recipient.

In yet another aspect, a recipient centric messaging system forcommunicating at least one message between a sender and a recipientusing a communications protocol over a data network is provided. Therecipient centric messaging system includes (a) a memory, and (b) a setof modules. The memory that stores (i) a database that stores (a) aplurality of communication preferences for the plurality of users, (b)information about the plurality of users, and (c) a plurality of messageforms, and (d) monetary details of a sender account and a recipientaccount. The processor executes the set of modules. The set of modulesincludes a preferences customization module, a message customizationmodule, a preferences displaying module, a compensation determinationmodule, a constraints applying module, and a compensation providingmodule. The preferences customization module, which is executed by theprocessor, specifies communication preferences that include computerinterpretable constraints for receiving messages from the sender. Themessage customization module, which is executed by the processor,automatically generates a customized message form based on the recipientcommunication preferences to compose a first message. The preferencesdisplaying module that is executed by the processor, displays at leastone of the communication preferences of the recipient to the sender inthe customized message form. The compensation determination module thatis executed by the processor determines the compensation amount toattach with the first message to get attention from the recipient. Theconstraints applying module that is executed by the processor verifieswhether the computer interpretable constraints and human interpretedconstraints that are mentioned in the communication preferences are metby the first message to send the first message to the recipient. Thecompensation providing module that is executed by the processortransfers the compensation amount attached with the first message to therecipient along with the first message when the first message isdelivered and when the recipient send a reply to the first message.

In one embodiment, the compensation providing module credits apercentage of the compensation amount for the first message to anaccount associated with the recipient centric messaging system forfacilitating the messaging and for exchange of the compensation amountfrom the sender to the recipient.

In another embodiment, the compensation providing module providesprivileges to the recipient that includes at least one of (a) creditinga compensation amount to a recipient centric messaging system account ofthe recipient, or (b) providing free messages to the recipient when therecipient invites a new user to the recipient centric messaging system.

In yet another embodiment, the recipient centric messaging systemincludes a sender verification module that is executed by the processorthat verifies the sender when the communication preferences of therecipient require senders to be verified before sending the firstmessage. In yet another embodiment, the sender verification moduleverifies at least one of (a) a social network account of the sender, (b)an email account of the sender, (c) a phone number of the sender, or (d)personal documents of the sender and does not deliver the first messagewhen the sender is not verified. In yet another embodiment, therecipient specifies that the sender has to be verified for the firstmessage to be delivered.

In yet another embodiment, the recipient centric messaging systemincludes a combined search module, and a refund module. The combinedsearch module that is executed by the processor, searches for therecipient based on attributes of the plurality of registered users thatincludes (a) a dynamic location of a user, (b) a name or designation ofthe user, (c) an age and a gender of the user, (d) current or pastcompanies of the user, (e) industry-segments of the user, or (f)educational institutions of the user to send the message. In yet anotherembodiment, the communication preferences of the recipient are displayedto the sender when selecting the recipient to send the message.

In yet another embodiment, the refund module provides choices to therecipient to (i) return the compensation money to the sender, (ii)donate part of the compensation money to a charity and keep theremaining money for the recipient, or (iii) donate the compensationmoney to the charity, or to a newly selected charity for the message. Inyet another embodiment, the refund module returns the compensation moneyto the sender of the first message when the recipient does not provideattention to the first message for a certain passage of time. In yetanother embodiment, the refund module automatically donates thecompensation money to the charity without the compensation moneyentering to a recipient centric messaging system account of therecipient.

In yet another embodiment, the recipient centric messaging systemincludes a message prioritizing module, a mailbox module, and areputation scoring module. The message prioritizing module that isexecuted by the processor receives the first message from the sender andprioritizes the first message in the recipient inbox based at least oneof (i) whether the sender is known to the recipient, or (ii) thecompensation amount attached with the first message. The mailbox modulethat is executed by the processor manages the messages received fromdifferent recipients. The mailbox module determines a current placementof the first message in an inbox of the recipient based on thecompensation amounts associated with other messages in the inbox. Themailbox module may (a) determine a cumulative value of compensationamounts associated with the messages in the inbox, (b) display thecumulative value of the compensation amounts associated with themessages in the inbox of the recipient, (c) display each of the messagesin the inbox of the recipient along with the compensation amountsattached with each of the messages, and (d) sort the messages indecreased order of the compensation amount associated with the messages.The reputation scoring module that is executed by the processor maydetermine a reputation score for the sender based on feedback from therecipient on at least one of (i) a priority level of the first message,(ii) whether the first message is properly classified by the sender, or(iii) whether the message is offensive or inappropriate to therecipient.

The reputation scoring module may further determine the reputation scorefor the sender based on an analysis of a message history of the senderusing predefined rules based on at least one of a (a) number of messagessent by the sender to the recipient, (b) fraction or percentage ofmessages marked as irrelevant messages by the recipient, and (c)fraction or percentage of messages replied to by the recipient.

In yet another embodiment, the reputation scoring module furtherdetermines the reputation score for the sender using a machine learningalgorithm which analyzes a plurality of parameters selected from a groupconsisting of a (a) number of messages sent by the sender to one or morerecipients, (b) fraction or percentage of messages replied to by the oneor more recipients, (c) relevance ratings assigned to the messages bythe one or more recipients, (d) length of replies sent by the recipient,or (e) sentiment analysis of the messages.

In yet another embodiment, the recipient centric messaging systemincludes a set of application programming interfaces and a protocol thatspecifies how the sender can send the messages and how the recipient canreceive the messages over the recipient centric messaging system. Theprotocol includes specific requirements for honoring the communicationspreferences. The recipient centric messaging system displays thecommunications preferences of the recipient and enforces the sender tocomply with the communications preferences in the applicationprogramming interface when the sender selects the recipient to send themessage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments herein will be better understood from the followingdetailed description with reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates modules, databases, and user experience components ina recipient centric messaging system that communicate with externalservices through a network according to an embodiment herein;

FIGS. 2A-2C illustrate a process view of a sender sending a message to arecipient using the recipient centric messaging system of FIG. 1according to an embodiment herein;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exploded view of the recipient centric messagingsystem of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment herein;

FIGS. 4A-4B illustrates user interface views of creating or updating arecipient profile based on social network accounts according to anembodiment herein;

FIGS. 4C-4D illustrates user interface views of specifying recipientpreferences according to an embodiment herein;

FIGS. 5A-5B illustrate user interface views of a recipient profile witha list of visible recipient preferences made visible to a sender andoptions to contact the sender according to an embodiment herein;

FIG. 6 illustrates a user interface view of the sender signing up withthe recipient centric messaging system of FIG. 1 using an email or asocial network account according to an embodiment herein;

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate user interface views of linking the recipientcentric messaging system of FIG. 1 to the sender's social networkaccounts according to an embodiment herein;

FIG. 8 illustrates a user interface view of the recipient centricmessaging system of FIG. 1 verifying a sender by verifying his mobilephone number according to an embodiment herein;

FIGS. 9A and 9B illustrate user interface views of a sender using anautomatically generated message form based on the recipient'spreferences to compose a message to the recipient according to anembodiment herein;

FIG. 10 illustrates a user interface view of the recipient centricmessaging system of FIG. 1 computing and suggesting compensation amountsto the sender based on what other people have bid to increase thepriority of the message within the recipient's inbox according to anembodiment herein;

FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate user interface views of a conversationscreen within the inbox of the recipient illustrating conversationoptions and compensation amounts to be claimed according to anembodiment herein;

FIG. 12 illustrates a user interface view of a recipient profile thatdisplays the communication preferences of the recipient according to anembodiment herein;

FIG. 13 illustrates a user interface view of a customized message formfor sending the message to the recipient according to an embodimentherein;

FIGS. 14A and 14B illustrate user interface views of the recipientcentric messaging system of FIG. 1 used for determining a reputationscore for the sender based on feedback from a recipient according to anembodiment herein;

FIGS. 15A and 15B are flow diagrams illustrating a method ofcommunicating at least one message between the sender and the recipientusing a communications protocol over a data network through therecipient centric messaging system according to an embodiment herein;

FIG. 16 illustrates an exploded view of a device that may be used toaccess the recipient centric messaging system of FIG. 1 according to theembodiments herein; and

FIG. 17 a schematic diagram of computer architecture used in accordancewith the embodiments herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate anunderstanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practicedand to further enable those of skill in the art to practice theembodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed aslimiting the scope of the embodiments herein. Descriptions of well-knowncomponents and processing techniques are omitted so as to notunnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. As mentioned, thereremains a need for a messaging system that is not sender centric andthat provides more control to recipients directly. The embodimentsherein disclose a recipient centric messaging system and protocols usedto implement the recipient centric messaging system over data networks.The recipient can specify his/her communication preferences, and themessaging system would require that the sender meet these requirementsfor the message to be delivered to the recipient's inbox. The recipientspecifies the communication preferences that include computerinterpretable constraints when the recipient creates or updates aprofile on the recipient centric messaging system. The computerinterpretable constraints may include (i) a limit on a number ofcharacters in the message, (ii) a specification on whether images orattachments are allowed or not, (iii) a compensation amount that isrequired for delivery of the message, (iv) a threshold reputation scoreof the sender required for delivery of the message, or (v) a volume ofmessage traffic received by the recipient that are associated with acategory of communication selected from the different categories ofcommunications. Some requirements are automatically verified by thesystem, but some of the requirements could be soft requirements thatcan't be verified by the system. An example of a soft requirement isthat the senders certify that they have met the recipient in person. Inthis case, the system relies on a reputation management solution to keepcheating to a minimum. In another example, the messaging system requeststhe sender to certify that the visible preferences are satisfied by themessage before sending the message. If the recipient reports that thesender has wrongly certified the visible preferences, the messagingsystem may reduce privileges of the sender (e.g. reduce the freemessages provided to the recipient). The messaging system may besufficiently flexible and adaptable so that it may serve a variety ofcommunities.

In one embodiment, the recipient centric messaging system allows alimited number of free messages within a given time period if the senderand the recipient (a) share the same alma mater, or (b) the sender andthe recipient previously worked for the same employer.

The embodiments disclose a recipient centric messaging system that canenforce recipient constraints around their preferences, and providecompensation for their attention and/or the ability to share theircommunication address freely without fear of spam and inappropriatecontent. The recipient centric messaging may be optimized to allowpeople to communicate effectively with people outside of their socialand/or professional networks. The recipient centric messaging systemallows a user to have a public communication address that anyone can useto contact them. It may also give the recipient controls to managecommunication in a way that filters out spam and irrelevant messageswhile also optionally providing for an option for the sender tocompensate them for their attention.

As mentioned, many communications systems today are “sender-centric” inthat there is little additional burden put on the sender once they haveobtained the recipients address (e.g. email address, phone # for SMS,etc.). When they send a message, the message is automatically deliveredto the recipient's inbox. It may then be up to the recipient to look atall received messages and make a decision to respond or delete as“junk-mail” or up to the messaging service to automatically determinethey are likely to be spam and put them in a special folder in therecipient's inbox. The recipient centric messaging system is designed tobe a “recipient-centric” system from the ground up.

The recipient centric messaging system may include a 1-1 messagingsystem, and/or a group messaging system. It may further include a 1-manymessaging systems for managing sponsored communications. The sponsoredcommunication is a direct connecting marketplace between buyers andsellers of attention. The sponsored message with a minimum compensationamount to deliver the message to the buyer. The sponsored message mayinclude (a) a promotional content, (b) an advertisement, (c) a videoassociated with advertisement or promotion, etc. The messaging systemprovides a searchable public directory (e.g., profile store) of allusers who have signed up with the service and the users may send orreceive messages. The system may require users to verify themselvesusing a variety of methods (e.g. email, phone #, credit card,associating to other social media accounts they own, etc.) so thateverybody on the system can have high confidence that they are messagingwith the “said” individual versus someone else who might have set-up asimilar fake profile and might be an imposter. The system provides anaddress-handle (e.g.xyz.com/@janereed) that can be showcased on anypublic website, a LinkedIn profile, blogs, etc. so that interestedsenders may communicate with registered users. The messaging system mayalso provide a small graphics-icon that can be shared freely and postedon various websites.

As part of signing-up for the messaging system service, users specifyand/or set-up their communications preferences for receiving messages.The users may indicate the topics they are interested in, whether theyallow images/attachments to be sent or not (e.g. which is highlyrelevant to women recipients when getting messages from people they donot know), size limits, and whether any amount of money is paid with themessage to compensate the recipient for his attention and time. Oftenthe money sent may be minimal, but even small amounts can greatlydiscourage senders of spam and inappropriate messages. For morepersistent spammers the system also allows for blacklisting senders. Therecipient's communication preferences may optionally be specified as alogic formula with “AND”, “OR”, “NOT” clauses among the possibleconstraints allowed by the system.

For the sender to send a message, they may simply click on the messagingsystem address-handle for the recipient. The senders are taken to set ofscreens that show recipient preferences and a structured message-formthat facilitates the senders to meet those requirements. If therecipient has asked for monetary compensation, then the sender needs tofirst add some money to their account with the messaging system using acredit card or service such as PayPal or Stripe, and then attach therequested sum with the message. The compensation to be attached to themessage may be dynamically determined by system. The sender may alsoneed to solve a Captcha code (e.g. to prove they are human and not amachine sending bulk messages) or any satisfy other such requirementsspecified by the messaging system. Once the sender meets allrequirements specified by recipient, the sender can send the message,which will then be delivered to the recipient.

The recipient centric messaging system will also provide the ability tousers to specify categories of messages that they would be interested inreceiving. Examples of such categories are personal messages, requestsfor speaking engagements, requests for book reviews, requests to reviewa business plan, career advice etc. The recipient centric messagingsystem will make it easy for the sender to indicate the category of themessage. Some of the categories are suggested by the system, and someare created by the recipient. Categories allow for the recipient centricmessaging system to add filters to categorize the mail that is received,and also to select different payment options for different categories.For example, a recipient might want money when someone wants them toreview a business plan, but they might be open to giving career advicefor free or to receive a message from someone that knows them. Therecipient centric messaging system will let the recipient create customcategories, and set different payment options for each category. Thecategories of communications may set up by the recipient based on (a)properties of senders, or (b) properties of communicated content. Therecipient may specify different constraints for different categories ofcommunications.

Some of the recipient's preferences can be enforced by the messagingsystem no attachments), but some of them are soft-preferences. (e.g.,someone stating that they know the recipient even though they don't, orselecting a message category of career advice). In those cases, thesystem may provide a feedback mechanism where the recipient can rate thesender (for example, mark their message as spam). This lets the systemtake appropriate action (like block future messages from them). Thepreferences for each user may be stored as rules in the database, andevery client that can compose messages (e.g., using web, mobile web, iOSapp, Android app or any client that uses the system APIs) retrievesthese constraints and enforces them at the time of message creation. Thespecific user experience used may depend on the device, Operating systemetc. The recipient centric messaging system includes a set of API's anda specific protocol for how a client can send/receive messages over thesystem. These protocols are unique because of the specific requirementsaround honoring recipient preferences. The system may be a closed systemso that only clients that use the system API are allowed to participatein the messaging system. This allows the system to make guarantees onhonoring recipient preferences.

The recipient is now assured that the messages in their inbox are muchmore likely to be relevant messages that will add value and are likelyto be worth responding to. The recipient may easily respond to themessage, in which case they will be credited with the money, if moneywas associated with the message. The messaging system may provideconsiderable flexibility on how money is handled, since there may bemany regulatory or ethical requirements to taking money when peoplemessage you. The messaging system may also make it easy for recipientsto return money to senders when or where appropriate, or give some orall of money to charity of their choice etc. Also, if the receiverchooses not to respond to a sent message (e.g., for various reasons), atsome threshold time the messaging system will return the attached moneyto the sender's account.

The proposed messaging system provides unprecedented control torecipient of messages not found in other messaging systems. For example,the recipient can decide if they are open to receiving anonymousmessages. In particular, this is a desirable property for investigativereporters where they are open to receiving anonymous tips for theirstories, though most people may not find this feature attractive.

While there are numerous existing and emerging messaging systems andSocial networks and Blogs, in many ways email remains the most importantplace where you get notifications. For example, there may be an emailsent by Facebook to a user to indicate that somebody tagged him/her on apicture, or that somebody made a “connect” request on LinkedIn or sentyou a message on LinkedIn, or somebody tweeted to you on Twitter, and soon. This is doubly ensured that everyone continuously monitors theiremail to learn about messages arriving on other communication channels.

The recipient centric messaging system is integrated with email so thatsome subsets of the features of the recipient centric messaging systemcan be accessed through email. When the recipient receives a messagefrom the sender, the recipient centric messaging system may notify therecipient about the message by sending an email. The notification systemcan be intelligent in the sense that it doesn't need to send anotification for every email, but can send one notification for severalemails and can also send a digest of new notifications to make it easyfor the recipient to reply to specific messages. The recipient centricmessaging system may provide a unique communication address that isoptimized to receive messages from people/senders you don't know andcould have additional features to help with such messages.

The recipient centric messaging system includes features that could helpwith potentially introducing some recipient preferences in anon-automatic way. For example, when the sender sends an email/messageto the unique communication address of the recipient centric messagingsystem, the sender receives an auto-reply with a survey about what theemail/message is about (e.g., personal, business etc.) with links toclick for each choice. This helps the sender classify the message forthe recipient and also confirms that there is a real person sending theemail with a valid email address (since they have to verify the email).A notification may be sent to the email along with the message but itmay not have all the other features available to messages sent to therecipient centric messaging system (e.g., like compensation amount).

The messaging system may be integrated with email in the following ways:(i) when a message arrives for the user from the messaging system, thesummary of the content, or the full message if it is just text is sentto the user via email. The email includes a special “Reply” buttonembedded inside it. While selecting the “reply” button, the system maydirectly take you to that message within the system messaging client(e.g., web-client on PCs or mobile client on iOS and Android) for theuser/recipient to compose and send the reply. However the reply messageis stored in the recipient centric messaging system 100, and not in anemail client; (ii) For messages that are text-only and where no-specialaction/restrictions are applicable for the reply (e.g. as in surveymessages entering a special “completion code”, or that have reply lengthconstraints, and so on, the messaging system may provide an option sothat the user can reply to the message directly from an email clientusing the email client reply button and protocol. In this case the emailreply may go to a proxy-server and then flow through the messagingsystem (e.g., so that all sender and recipient preferences/constraintsare respected), so that any attached money is properly accounted for.

However, the messaging system simplifies the user's task of frequentlyswitching between multiple messaging clients and interfaces; (iii)Beyond the “reply” button, the messaging system may also include other“action” buttons. The messaging system might optionally provide a“Reject” button. The reject button can be used to delete the messagefrom the messaging system and make sure that the recipient is notcredited any attached money as he made the decision not to reply (payattention) to the message; and (iv) the messaging system may alsoprovide daily or weekly digests of activity or pending requests as emailnotifications to user. This integration can help user to manage theirflow of messages coming from the messaging system and ignore some ofthem during periods when the traffic over the messaging system networkis high.

Some of the above exemplar integrations can be implemented through anemail-system proxy service. For the messaging system to email pathways,the proxy-service translates the system messages into email and sendsthem to an appropriate user's one or more registered email address(es).For example, the messaging system may decide (i) what summary to extractfrom the original system message, (ii) what other HTML-buttons to add tothe email message, and (iii) what email address to send such composedmessages to. In one embodiment, on the reverse pathway, the proxy-servermay receive the email from an email-service, parse the recipient withinthe messaging system, parse the type of message, what message this is inresponse to, decide if any money transfers are required and then invokethe appropriate messaging system APIs so that from an end-userperspective it appears that the message-reply was composed and generatedwithin the messaging system.

Further the messaging system may determine and maintain a reputationscore for each the sender/recipient in the system to be able to reportsenders who are frequent spammers and have an idea of responsiverecipients. In one embodiment, the messaging system may report thespammy senders, and the responsive recipients based on (i) what kind ofmessage the sender sends to the recipients, and (ii) how much time therecipient takes to respond to the sender's message. In addition, therecipient centric messaging system may use the reputation score todecide if messages from the sender can be sent to the recipient. It mayalso allow the recipient to specify that they only accept messages ifthe sender has a score greater than a threshold reputation score. Thereputation score may be calculated based on (i) analyzing a messagehistory to identify a (a) number of messages sent by the sender, (b)number of messages marked by the recipient as irrelevant messages (e.g.spam), and/or (c) a number of replies sent by the recipient. The messagehistory may be analyzed by predefined rules, (ii) various parametersthat include a (a) number of messages sent by the sender, (b) number ofreplies sent by the recipient, (c) text contained in the messages, (d)length of the replies sent by the recipient, (e) time of a day (e.g. 11PM) the message was sent, (f) language used in the message, variousparameters analyzed by a machine learning algorithm, and/or (iii)sentiment analysis of the messages. The reputation score may be used toincentivize or encourage the sender to send relevant messages to therecipients and to discourage irrelevant or inappropriate messages.

The messages may be ranked in the recipient inbox based on thereputation score and the compensation money attached with the messages.The messaging system may allow the sender to send only paid messages(e.g. messages with an attached compensation amount) if the sender has alow reputation score. The messaging system may show the reputation scoreof the recipient to the sender, if the recipient has the high reputationscore.

In one embodiment, another desirable property for the recipient centricmessaging system is its ability to unify the numerous siloed messagingsystems that users have today (e.g. one to manage their messagingpresence on Quora, another on Yelp, another on Reddit, etc.). This isbecause each of the above mentioned community sites builds in own custommessaging system to address the failures of email and alternativemessaging systems, but not in a broad general way as proposed here. But,the recipient centric messaging system 100 has ability to capture thewebpage address on which the messaging system address-handle is placed(for example, it will know whether the invocation of xyz.com/@janereedwas from a Quora web page or from a Yelp web page). Based on thisknowledge, the recipient centric messaging system may automaticallytag/label the message that is sent with domain-name of invoking site.This may allow the Inbox client to automatically separate out messagesreceived from different communities, making it easy for recipient toreply respecting the expected norms of the community, in an embodiment.

This is one exemplar of various dynamic labels that may be attached tomessages based on context and environment (e.g. another could be countryof origin) that can be used in message filtering algorithms for therecipient. The system mailbox may indicate how many messages there are,how much money is associated with the messages, and with some indicatorof the time required as well. Since the system has profiles for everysender in the system, the mailbox can have a people centric view, whichshows profiles of the different senders and the amount of mail fromeach. There are also other visualization options where one can seecharts of your mail by source, category etc.

The messaging system may also support 1-many messages. The 1-manymessages option is most useful for group informational messages (e.g.messaging all small-business-owners in a mall about a change in parkingregulations), or as a marketing tool (e.g. messaging allrestaurant-owners in a zip-code about a new coffee-machine that has justbeen introduced). However, the messaging system ensures that the sendersof such messages meet recipient preferences, which may include enablingrecipients to be compensated for their time and attention based on theirpreferences.

The recipient centric messaging system may include a target listgeneration module, an attention criteria specifying module, acompensation determination module, a klout score determination module, acommunication preferences verification module, an attention criteriaverification module, and a compensation crediting module. The targetlist generation module is configured to generate a target list of asubset of registered users of the recipient based messaging system bysearching or selecting the subset of registered users by the senderbased on a plurality of desired attributes. In an embodiment, thedesired attributes includes a (i) registered or dynamic location of aplurality of users, (ii) profession of the plurality of users, (iii) ageand gender of the plurality of users, and/or (iii) identity of theplurality of users. The plurality of users may be verified based on (a)a verified phone number, a verified credit card number, or a verifiedsocial media (e.g. LinkedIn) profile.

The attention criteria specifying module is configured to specify theattention criteria required from the plurality of recipients forreceiving the compensation for providing attention to the sponsoredmessage. The attention criteria may include (a) whether the sponsoredmessage was opened or not, (b) a minimum amount of time needs to bespend by the recipient where a sponsored message window forefront andvisible to the recipient who received the sponsored message, (c) whetherthe recipient interacted with the sponsored message window by scrollingdown to latter portion of the sponsored message, (iv) whether therecipient sufficiently watched a video or not when the video is attachedwith the sponsored message, (v) hot spot overlays on a video, or thatan, image needs to be touched, or clicked to indicate attention when thevideo, or the image is attached with the sponsored message, (vi) whethera short survey at end of the sponsored message is answered by therecipient, (vii) an explicit button needs to be acknowledged that thesponsored message is read by the recipient, and/or (viii) a timeboundary by when attention needs to be provided to the sponsoredmessage.

The compensation determination module is configured to determine thecompensation amount to attach with the sponsored message to getattention from the recipient. In an embodiment, the sponsored messagerequires a minimum compensation amount to be delivered to the recipient.The compensation determination module associates the compensation withthe sponsored message. The compensation determination module may providea fixed compensation amount to the registered users in the target list.The compensation determination module may alternatively provide avariable compensation amount to the registered users in the target listbased on criteria selected from a group that includes: (a) importanceand popularity of the plurality of recipients, (b) a minimumcompensation amount that the registered users has set to receive thesponsored message, (c) algorithmic recommendations by the recipientcentric messaging system based on length of the sponsored message, and(d) historical data indicating which compensation drives what percentageof open-rates for the sponsored messages.

The klout score determination module is configured to determine a socialpopularity score and/or a reputation score for the registered users. Thecommunication preferences verification module is configured to verifywhether the sponsored message complies with the communicationpreferences of the registered users from the target list of the subsetof registered users. The communication preferences may includeconstraints and communication preferences specific to the sponsoredmessages. The communication preferences verification module delivers thesponsored message only to those registered users from the target list ofthe subset of registered users for whom the sponsored message complieswith their communication preferences.

The attention criteria verification module is configured to verifywhether the recipient meets one ore more of the attention criteria toget the compensation amount attached with sponsored message. Thecompensation crediting module is configured to credit the compensationonly to those registered users from the target list of the subset ofregistered users for whom the sponsored message complies with theircommunication preferences including the mandatory constraints and thecommunication preferences specific to sponsored messages only when theyprovide attention to the sponsored message that meets the attentioncriteria specified by the sender.

The recipient centric messaging system allows the recipient to specifythe communication preferences to receive the sponsored message. Thecommunication preferences may include (i) whether the registeredrecipient wishes to receive the sponsored messages from all senders ornot, (ii) an interested topic that the recipient is open to receive thesponsored message on, (iii) whether the recipient is open to receive thesponsored message from black-listed senders or not, (iv) a specificationon whether images are allowed or not and whether attachments allowed ornot, and/or (v) a compensation amount that is required for delivery ofthe sponsored message.

The sponsored messages are displayed under a sponsored message tab thatis associated with a mailbox of the recipient centric messaging system.The unclaimed compensation amount may also be displayed in the sponsoredmessage tab. Further, the recipient centric messaging system mayindicate (a) list of the sponsored messages along with the compensationamount which is already claimed by the recipient, and (b) unreadsponsored messages with their compensation amounts.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous detailsthereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limitingembodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings anddetailed in the following description. As used in the below description,the terms “database/store”, “module”, “user-experience (ux)”, “system”,and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, eitherhardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or softwarein execution. For example, a database/store/module may be, but is notlimited to being, a process running on a processor, an object, anexecutable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By wayof illustration, both an application running on a server and the servercan be a database/module. One or more databases/modules may residewithin a process and/or thread of execution and a module may belocalized on one computer and/or distributed between two or morecomputers that may be localized in same data center or geographicallydistributed.

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIGS. 1 through17, where similar reference characters denote corresponding featuresconsistently throughout the figures, preferred embodiments are shown.Various aspects are now described with reference to the drawings. In thefollowing description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specificdetails are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding ofone or more aspects. It may be evident, however, that the variousaspects may be practiced without these specific details. In otherinstances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagramform in order to facilitate describing these aspects.

FIG. 1 illustrates modules, databases, and user experience components ina recipient centric messaging system 100 that communicates with externalservices through a network 101 according to an embodiment herein. Therecipient centric messaging system 100 includes the various databasesand modules and user-experience components that come together toimplement the messaging system. In one embodiment, the various systemsinclude additional databases or modules and/or may not include all ofthe components and modules discussed in connection with the figures. Acombination of these approaches may also be used. The various aspectsdisclosed herein can be performed on electrical devices includingdevices that utilize touch screen display technologies and/ormouse-and-keyboard type interfaces, in an embodiment. Examples of suchdevices include computers (desktop and mobile), smart phones, personaldigital assistants (PDAs), and other electronic devices both wired andwireless.

The recipient centric messaging system 100 includes databases such anentity storage database 102, a message storage database 104, a paymentand account storage database 106, a user interactions storage database108, modules such as a search index module 110, a profile andcommunication preferences module 112, a user verification module 114, auser to user messaging module 116, a group messaging module 118, amessaging account maintaining module/payment module 120, a people andmessage searching module 122, a performance notification module 124, anduser experience components such as a web portal 126, a web-messaging app128, iOS, Android, or Windows mobile apps 130, and analytics dashboards132.

The entity storage database (S1)102 may store information about“users/people” but also about other possible entities, such asbusinesses or groups that could be both senders and receivers ofcommunications. For people and entities, the entity storage database(S1)102 may store information such as a name, an address, a picture,email-addresses, a phone no, a date-of-birth, a driver license numberand images, a background-picture for a profile page, education history,employment history, links to the person or entity's social networks(e.g. on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, Pinterest, Stack Overflow,Medium, etc.), endorsements from other people, CreditCards/PayPal-accounts/Bank-account links as may be required to receiveand send payments within messages, etc. Not all of the fields may befilled out at any given point in time. Other fields may be added at anytime to capture more data that is relevant for the communications task.In cases of business/group entities, similar but slightly differentfields may be recorded (e.g. the business email address versus theindividual/personal email address).

The recipient centric messaging system 100 may encourage users to“verify” several of the above fields using a variety of methods, in anembodiment. For example, sending an email to the specified account andgetting a response back may verify an email address. Sending a code viaSMS to that phone and receiving a response code back may verify themobile phone number. The mobile phone verification is an important partof the system since new SIMs for mobile phones are hard to obtain, andthe messaging system may limit the maximum number ofaccounts/user-profiles that can be associated with any single phonenumber. Similarly, a recipient may verify that the links being providedfor various social accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn aregenuine by asking the user to login and authenticate against thosesystems. The verification is important so that everybody on therecipient centric messaging system 100 can have high confidence thatthey are messaging with the “said” individual versus someone else whomight have set-up a similar fake profile and might be an imposter. Theuser verification module 114 may provide the logic and services toimplement all these verification procedures.

The entity storage database (S1) 102 is also used for storing the“communications preferences” for the person/entity. In an embodiment,the recipient centric messaging system 100 is capable of supporting awide variety of options for what is recorded and how these getleveraged. In another embodiment, the communications preferences mayinclude but are not limited to and may be selected from any of: 1) asimple text-field indicating areas of interests, what ought to beincluded in the message, who they wish to connect with and for whatpurposes, etc.; 2) a limit of characters or words of text that could bein message; 3) a specification of whether images are allowed or not; 4)a specification on whether attachments are allowed, file-types ofattachments allowed, size-limits on attachments allowed, whatattachments are must-have, etc.; 5) an ability to black-listpeople/entities on the messaging systemdatabase (i.e. the entity storagedatabase (S1) 102) and preventing those from sending the recipientmessages; 6) an ability to white-list people who may have become trustedassociates and are therefore allowed to send messages without anyconstraints above; 7) an ability to require that the senders must-havecertain “verified” attributes before sending messages (e.g. they have averified phone number and verified LinkedIn profile link); 8) an abilityto black-list certain specific words (e.g. various four-letter words)and ensure that messages containing those are not accepted, and/orsimply checking a box that leverages the messaging system specifieddefaults for such words and image filtering; 9) an ability to specifythat before sending a message the sender much prove they are human (e.g.done via a captcha code that asks the person to enter the numbercontained in a distorted image or through variety of other means thatare common practice now); 10) an ability to specify the amount (e.g.,could also be $0) that the sender must attach before sending the messageto ensure seriousness and/or as compensation for the time/attention ofrecipient; further this amount may be specified as a minimum reserveprice that could be exceeded by sender, or as a dynamic price determinedby the messaging systemto increase the priority/visibility of sendermessages using any of auction or other algorithms; 11) an ability tospecify different categories of communication that allows the recipientto quickly prioritize which messages to pay attention to. Thesecategories also allow for different compensation amounts for differentclasses of messages, for e.g. personal messages do not require any moneyattached, but sponsored/marketing messages must include at minimum $2;12) the compensation amounts may not always be monetary as justindicated; they could also be arbitrary other virtual points/goods asoften use in gaming systems or search competitions; 13) a check-box listwith ontology of different categories of industries, differentcategories of inquiries, etc. that the user can simply check to indicateher interests; the sender could then also checkmark what areas his/hermessage corresponds to; 14) an ability to specify that messages only beaccepted from senders who have a certain reputation within the system(e.g. if their messages are not rejected or marked as spam/inappropriateby xx % of recipients), or that they are considered an authority on atopic of interest, or they have a certain “star-rating” on the messagingsystem, or they are well-recognized on a connected system (e.g. they area “top-writer” within the Quora community or they are a “verified user”on the Facebook or Twitter communities); 15) an ability to specify thatthe sender is “friends” or “connected” with recipients (the user) ownfriends/community, e.g. they are less than 2-degrees of separation fromthe recipient; 16) an ability to require driver-license verification andchecks against various state and national databases.

In an embodiment, entity storage database (S1) 102 contains not-onlystatic information, but it also records certain dynamically generatedinformation by the recipient centric messaging system 100. For example,reputation scores, a success rate in sending messages and % that were“accepted” by recipients, and etc. The recipient centric messagingsystem 100 may at any time support only a subset of the preferenceslisted above and/or new ones may be added later as needed. The reason tosupport an extensive set of controls via these preferences is that thecommon-case scenario for the messaging system is for messaging withpeople/entities that you do not know well. In one embodiment, thesenders do not belong to your social/professional networks (at least,yet), and therefore one may wish to take a conservative approach tominimize spam/inappropriate messages and the interruption/attention/timethat such messages may take from the user. The degree of verification arecipient wishes/specifies may also be a function of thecriticality/risk associated with the message. In one embodiment, thesender needs to verify themselves in many ways, for example, this mayincrease chances that the recipients trust them and accept theirmessages.

In one embodiment, this profile-information and thesecommunications-preferences may be captured using the logic/codecontained in the profile and communication preferences module (M1) 112.The profile and communication preferences module 112 implements thelogic to enlist this information from the user and keepsprofile-information and communications-preferences up-to-date in theentity storage database (S1) 102. From time-to-time, based on thecompleteness of the profile, in conjunction with the performancenotification module (M7) 124, it may also send reminder messagesencouraging them to further complete/update the profile informationstored for them. This information may be updated by users via theweb-portal (UX1) 126, the web-messaging app (UX2)128, or mobile apps(UX3) 130.

In one embodiment, all of the information about a user (e.g., both theirprofile information and their communications preferences information) isdivided into two parts (i) a “visible” part and a (b) “hidden” part. The“visible” part, e.g. name, photos, topics of interest to user, etc. arethose fields that are shown to other users and entities to help themdiscover the “said” person/user and to communicate more effectively withthem. The “hidden” part, e.g. credit-card info, black-list of people forthis user, etc. are those fields that are not shown to other users, asthey may be relevant only to the internal workings of the messagingsystem (e.g. credit-card info), and/or they may potentially hurtrelationship and communications within the community (e.g. theblack-list information). In one embodiment, the messaging system willhave default classifications for the various kinds of information weobtain from users, but we will also provide some user-control indeciding what is exposed externally (e.g. some may prefer not to havetheir image shown).

The message storage database (S2) 104 may include all data associatedwith the actual messaging among users. The user to user messaging module(M3) 116 implements all the logic associated with actual sending andreceipt of messages, for verifying that the recipient requirements arebeing satisfied, ensuring that the payments are made and received whenthey are required or offered as incentive (e.g., in conjunction withpayments store and module), and other elements that are specified below.The user-interface for all these functions is provided via the UX1-UX4(a web portal 126, a web messaging app 128, an iOS/Android/Windowsmobile app 130, and analytics dashboard 132) components across web andmobile apps.

The message storage database 104 may contain all sent and receivedmessages for users and entities. In one embodiment, the message storagedatabase 104 contains the contents of the message (e.g., text, images,attachments, etc.), the threading relationship between the messages(e.g. what is a reply to what message), metadata such as what messageshave been read/unread, how much time has elapsed since a message wassent and the read/unread status (e.g. in which case it may be useful toreturn money to the sender if there is no attention by recipient), andnumerous other parameters as normally found in implementations of suchemail/messaging systems. The message storage database 104, itself may bepartitioned across servers and data centers (e.g., includinggeographical distribution for performance, for redundancy and dataprotection) and/or for meeting national PII-data storage (e.g.,personally identifiable information) requirements (e.g. that data forcitizens of China must be stored only on servers located in China).

The message-store component of the recipient centric messaging system100 may be similar to other public email/messaging systems. However, therecipient centric messaging system 100 includes certain unique kinds ofdata that are allowed in the structured messages (e.g. as specified byrecipient preferences) and in how the user-to-user messaging module(M3)116 then operates on the data store to implement the allowable usermessage exchanges. In one embodiment, the above section focuses only on1-1 message exchanges between users of the messaging system.

As discussed earlier, the recipient centric messaging system 100 mayinclude a provision for senders of messages to attach payments (usingreal or virtual currencies) to messages for recipients in lieu of their(i) time and attention, (ii) for their advice and expertise, (iii) toindicate their own serious intent in sending the message, (iv) toincrease the priority of their message in the recipient's view, (v) toincrease the likelihood that the recipient will provide a morethoughtful and detailed reply based on the principle ofhuman-reciprocity, and/or (vi) simply as a mechanism for recipient todiscourage sexually or otherwise inappropriate messages to be sent toher.

For any given message with attached payments, the recipient is providedwith a variety of ways to deal with the money as shown by few exemplarsbelow. For example, the recipient could: (a) return the money to thesender (e.g., because they happen to be an old long-lost friend), (b) ordonate it all to a given charity or in specified proportions to a set ofcharities, (c) or keep it all for herself, and (d) or keep x % forherself and donate (100−x) % to one or more charities. When the systemis directed to donate 100% to one or more charities, the recipientcentric messaging system 100 may do so in a way so that there are no taxconsequences for the recipient (e.g., no money flows to her, and all isgiven to charity by the recipient centric messaging system 100 in ananonymous manner), and/or the money could be first directed to therecipient account and then portion of money directed to charity with therecipient-name attached. The recipient centric messaging system 100 alsomay provide options such that when a recipient is unable to provideattention to a message, (e.g. it has been pending in their Inbox formore than 7 days), the attached money may be refunded to the sender ofthe message.

As envisioned, in a preferred embodiment, the recipient centricmessaging system 100 may not store “real” money in the accountsassociated with users and entities. To pay for sending a message, usersmust first “fund” their recipient centric messaging system 100-accountvia 3^(rd) party services such as PayPal, Stripe, or Bank account. In anembodiment, the balance in such user-accounts goes up or down based onpayments made or received for messages or returned from unattendedmessages. However, when the messaging-account is “funded” using externalservices, or when money is taken out of the messaging systemuser-account to an external bank/PayPal account, etc., then the systemmay impose a certain minimum-amount that must be transferred (e.g.system could have a $5 minimum for adding or removing funds). The $5minimum may be required to limit the total no ofbank/PayPal/Stripe/transactions required, as typically today, suchtransactions come with an overhead of 2.9%+30 c charge in the US. In oneembodiment, the fund details of the user account are stored in thepayment and account storage database 106.

To support the above scenarios, the messaging account maintainingmodule/payment module 120 in combination, may maintain amessaging-account for all users and entities in the recipient centricmessaging system 100. In one embodiment, all transactions are dulyrecorded and an audit-trail is kept. In another embodiment, therecipient centric messaging system 100 attempts to make sure alltransactions comply with necessary local, state, national, regulationsand guidelines. For example, the system may issue a 1099-MISC form inUSA as record submitted for income received by a recipient through suchmessages. The system may also attempt to perform additional processing,such as fraud detection, money laundering, etc. The recipient centricmessaging system 100 may perform some of such processing itself or relyon interfaces to 3^(rd) party systems/services for the implementation ofsuch hygiene and regulatory matters. The recipient centric messagingsystem 100 also envisions providing informal guidance to all users onethical-use and best practices use of money within the system.

The messaging account maintaining module/payment module 120 (e.g.,working in close conjunction with the messaging module) may alsoimplement an algorithmic recommended/auction pricing logic for messagesto support senders. This recommendation-system may recommend how muchmoney the sender may want to attach to the message to get recipient'sattention immediately by being the top-message (e.g., or be in thetop-10 unread messages, or based on what other pending messages havepaid, or based on other digital auction-logic) and is a hint that thesenders can leverage. The recommendation service is also useful becauseoften the recipients may be hesitant/shy/not-know-how-to-best-estimateputting a monetary value to their time or attention, but feel much morecomfortable when the recipient centric messaging system 100 is itselfdoing such price setting or recommendations.

In one embodiment, the recipient communication preferences may bespecified to include that certain money is to digitally accompany themessage for required conditions to be satisfied. In this case the moneyspecified is an “exact” amount to be delivered with the message. Inanother embodiment, the money specified may be a “reserve price” (e.g.,the minimum amount to be attached), but a higher amount may also beattached to seek attention. In another embodiment, the money is notspecified directly by the recipient, but the recipient chooses that thesystem run an algorithm (e.g., which may be an auction) to determine howmuch money the sender ought to attach to increase priority of themessage for the recipient. The money may be a virtual currency as usedoften in digital gaming systems (e.g. points, virtual goods). The moneyallocated to user may be a dynamic amount based on properties of thecontent (e.g. length of attached video) so that the monetary amount is afunction of the amount of recipient attention required.

When such 1-many marketing messages are flowing through to a selectedgroup of users, the messaging account maintaining module 120 helps indeciding how much needs to be paid to each group member (e.g. fixedamount to all or variable amount based on user profile) and does theneeded accounting to support the system. The messaging accountmaintaining module 120 may also collect a “vig” or a commissionassociated with all monetary transactions flowing through the recipientcentric messaging system 100 for both regular and sponsored messages.

The recipient centric messaging system 100 may support searches based on(i) a people search and (ii) a message search. The people search mayfurther includes two types of scenarios as follows: (a) looking for anindividual person, and (b) when we are looking for a group of people(e.g. to send a sponsored message) that share some characteristics. Inone embodiment, the searches are performed in the people and messagesearching module 122.

By default, all user profile data, both structured (e.g. date of birth,name of university, years when attended college, name of major, etc.)and free-form text (e.g. what I fill out within the “interests” field)are fully indexed within the recipient centric messaging system 100(i.e. in the search index module 110). In one embodiment, the searchinterface provided for individual and group search is a combination of“full-text search” and “faceted search” (e.g., as in the searchinterface provided in the LinkedIn and Microsoft Outlook systems). Thefull-text search is used to filter the individual/entities based on anyof the text-fields in user profile, while faceted search takes advantageof known entities (e.g. location/cities, current or past companies,industry-segments, educational institutions, etc.) to narrow down thescope of search. Such an interface can leverage the sparse knowledge theuser may know about the person (e.g. they live in city X, or they wentto university Y, or I used to work with them at company Z, to narrow thesearch quickly). These are common techniques used in numerous systemsdeployed in industry and academia, as known to persons skilled in theart.

In one embodiment, all of the messages in the recipient centricmessaging system 100 are also full-text indexed and associated meta-datais also indexed (e.g. who sent the message, were there any attachments,date sent, etc.) that can be used to find past messages. The recipientcentric messaging system 100 may leverage established practices in theindustry in providing such search capabilities for messages within anInbox.

Further the recipient centric messaging system 100 attempts to addresssome of the fundamental drawbacks of prior messaging systems ornetworking systems by building a “direct” connection between the buyersof attention (e.g. an advertiser) and sellers of attention (e.g. anindustry expert or any consumer) and ensuring that the compensationamount ($$) for attention are transferred directly between these twoparties without the intermediating service owner keeping all of themoney. The recipient centric messaging system 100 is the “directconnection” established between the sender and recipient of messages,and transfer of value for time/attention provided.

The group messaging module 118 provides the option to the sender to sendgroup messages that are also 1-many messages within the recipientcentric messaging system 100. For example, one could establish a groupwithin the recipient centric messaging system 100 that corresponds toall residents in a building-complex. The building owner could sendmessages to the whole group if an unidentified car had itssecurity-alarm blaring in the parking lot, and so on.

The user interactions storage database (S4) 108 stores all interactionsthat are generated across all clients and server-side components. In oneembodiment. The user interactions storage database (S4) 108 and theperformance notification module (M7) 124 are performance indicators,e.g. time to load the app on mobile phone, time to load a message page,play a video, server-side responses, and soon. In another embodiment,the user interactions storage database (S4) 108 and the performancenotification module (M7) 124 could be an indicator of user engagement(e.g. indicate how often they interact with the mobile app, how often dothey send messages, at what times of the day gathered with userpermission etc.) allowing a user to optimize those metrics. Therecipient centric messaging system 100 may achieve such interaction dataeither on the system or with external partner services.

The performance notification module 124 looks at all data across alldatabases (e.g. what fraction of the profile they have completed, whenwas it that they last interacted with the system, etc.) and sendsnotification messages to users to increase their engagement andsatisfaction with the messaging system solution, in an embodiment. Theperformance notification module 124 attempts to keep a global view of“user journey” so that user avoid siloed behaviors and messaging,ensuring that the user has a consistent and pleasant and non-spammyinteraction with the messaging system solution.

FIGS. 2A-2C illustrate process views of a sender sending a message to arecipient using the recipient centric messaging system of FIG. 1according to an embodiment herein. At step 202, the recipient centricmessaging system 100 receives recipient communication preferences thatinclude constraints from the recipient when the recipient creates orupdates his/her user profile on the recipient centric messaging system100. At step 204, the recipient centric messaging system 100 publishesthe recipient's user profile along with a set of visible preferencesthat the recipient has made visible for senders. At step 206, therecipient centric messaging system 100 processes a request from thesender to send a personal message to the recipient. At step 208, therecipient centric messaging system 100 directs the recipient to sign upwith or log on to the recipient centric messaging system 100 if thesender is not already logged on to the system. At step 210, therecipient centric messaging system 100 may verify the sender if therecipient's communication preferences require the sender to be verified.At step 212, the recipient centric messaging system 100 generates acustomized message form based on the recipient's communicationpreferences to enable the sender to compose the message to comply withthe recipient's preferences. At step 214, the recipient centricmessaging system 100 provides an indication to the sender if at leastone constraint is not met. At step 216, the recipient centric messagingsystem 100 may deliver a first message to the recipient if and only ifall the constraints specified in the recipient communication preferencesas well as system specified constraints are met by the first message. Atstep 218, the recipient centric messaging system 100 may return themessage to the sender specifying at least one constraint, which was notmet, due to which it did not deliver the message, and gives anopportunity to the sender to modify the message to meet the constraints.In one embodiment, the recipient centric messaging system 100 indicatesthat the message has not met a constraint (e.g. attached money) when thesender is drafting/composing the message. In another embodiment, therecipient centric messaging system 100 performs a verification andreturns the message to the sender if the message has not met aconstraint. The recipient centric messaging system 100 may perform theverification when the sender hits the send button (e.g. the contentverification service may kick-in only after a send-key is hit).

At step 220, the recipient centric messaging system 100 communicates anotification to the recipient that a message has been received. At step222, the recipient centric messaging system 100 displays the firstmessage that was received along with a compensation amount associatedwith the message to the recipient. At step 224, the recipient centricmessaging system 100 processes a first reply to the first message fromthe recipient. At step 226, a first reply is published in a conversationscreen that also includes the first message. At step 228, the recipientcentric messaging system 100 credits compensation associated with themessage by the sender to a payment recipient specified by the recipientin the recipient preferences. In one embodiment, the payment recipientsmay be distributed amongst a (i) charity-1 to receive 20% ofcompensation money, (ii) charity-2 to receive another 20% ofcompensation money, (iii) and the recipient to keep remaining 60% ofcompensation money.

In one embodiment, the recipient centric messaging system 100 triggersthe payment (i) when the recipient sends the reply message to thesender, (ii) when the recipient has sufficiently watched a video that isattached with the message, (iii) when the recipient answered a questionin a survey, and etc. At step 230, the recipient centric messagingsystem 100 processes a request from the recipient to end theconversation. At step 232, the recipient centric messaging system 100processes a second message from the sender to the recipient. At step234, the recipient centric messaging system 100 delivers the secondmessage to the recipient if and only if all the constraints specified inthe recipient communication preferences as well as system specifiedconstraints are met by the second message, including an additionalcompensation if specified in the recipient preferences.

An example of how the system protocols might work for a sender mayinvolve authenticating a user, and then retrieving recipientpreferences. A client device may render the user experience of themessage creator by displaying the message form that honors thoserecipient preferences. At this point, the preferences might also statethat the sender can't send this recipient a message (e.g., because theyare on a blacklist for that recipient or globally because of previouslysent spam messages). The sender may send the message and get back aresponse token. The message could be rejected if the recipient'spreferences aren't met. The response token could either be an eventbased callback or a token that the client can use to poll for theresult. In the system, messages may not be delivered immediately sincethey are checked for inappropriate content, they may require paymentetc. The response token allows the sending client to receive the statusof the message and take action in case the message was rejected (e.g.,by changing the text, paying for the message etc.) On the recipientside, the APIs allow for the unique nature of the mailbox and have API'sthat allow for retrieving messages by category, tags, source, money etc.They may also get high-level information about the mailbox (e.g., anumber of messages, total money attached, total money in the account,unread messages etc. The recipient centric messaging system 100 mayfurther include APIs to manage recipient preferences, mailboxpreferences etc.

The protocols may allow the recipient centric messaging system to (a)show the relevant categories based on the recipient preferences, (b)enforce minimum stamp requirements, honor code etc., (c) receive thecompensation amount from the sender to send the message, (d) send themessage to the recipient and debit the amount from the sender account,(e) deliver the message to the recipient inbox and wait for therecipient response on the message, and (f) credit the compensationamount to the recipient account if the recipient responds to themessage, or else refund the compensation amount to the sender account.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exploded view 300 of the recipient centricmessaging system 100 of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment herein. Thefunctional block diagram of the recipient centric messaging systemincludes a preferences database 302, a preferences customization module304, a preferences displaying module 306, a sender verification module308, a message customization module 310, a compensation determinationmodule 312, a constraints applying module 314, a compensation providingmodule 316, a mailbox module 318, a message prioritizing module 320, acombined search module 322, and a refund module 324. The preferencescustomization module 304 is configured to specify/set-up thecommunication preferences for receiving messages.

In one embodiment, the communication preferences include but are notlimited to: (i) a simple text-field indicating areas of interests, (ii)who they wish to connect with and for what purposes, (iii) a limit ofcharacters or words of text that could be in message, (iv) aspecification whether images are allowed or not and whether attachmentsallowed or not, (v) a minimum payment required for delivery of themessage, (vi) categories of communication types specified by therecipient, and (vii) a volume of message traffic received by therecipient associated with a certain category of communication etc. Therecipient communications preferences may optionally be specified as alogic formula with “AND”, “OR”, “NOT” clauses among the possibleconstraints allowed by the system. The preferences customization module304 is optionally configured to specify the amount that the sender mustattach before sending the message to ensure seriousness and/or ascompensation for time/attention of recipient. The preferences displayingmodule 306 is configured to display the recipient preferences to thesender.

In one embodiment, some of recipient preferences may not be visible tothe sender e.g., black-lists of senders. The sender verification module308 is configured to verify the sender before sending a message to therecipient. The sender may be required to be verified using their socialidentities, mobile number, personal documents etc. For example, (i) anemail may be verified by sending an email to the specified account andgetting the challenge response back, (ii) the mobile phone number may beverified by sending a code via SMS to that phone and receiving aresponse code back, etc. If using a social identity like Twitter, thatsite verifies the user. For example, Twitter has a concept of a verifieduser, which is information that is available to the message site whenthe user logs in using Twitter. The personal documents (e.g. a drivinglicense etc.) may be verified by checking the license number with adatabase.

The message customization module 310 is configured to automaticallygenerate a message-form where the sender enters the message. In oneembodiment, the message-form displays the recipientpreferences/constraints. In another embodiment, the message-formgenerated is based on the communication preferences of the recipients.The compensation determination module 312 is configured to determine acompensation amount for sending a message to a recipient. For example,(i) the compensation determination module 312 may determine that thecompensation amount is zero when the sender wishes to send a personalmessage (e.g., to a person who is known or who he has corresponded withearlier), and (ii) the compensation determination module 312 maydetermine that the compensation amount is a minimum of $2 when thesender wishes to send sponsored/marketing messages. In one embodiment,the compensation determination module 312 determines how much money thesender may want to attach to their message to get the recipient'sattention immediately by being the top-message (e.g., or be in thetop-10 unread messages, or based on what other pending messages havepaid, or based on other digital auction-logic) in the recipient's inbox.In another embodiment, the compensation amount is suggested by thecompensation determination module 312 based on (i) amounts associatedwith existing messages received by the recipient and priorities of theexisting messages in order to increase a priority of the message for therecipient, (ii) one or more properties of content associated with themessage, wherein the one or more properties of content include a lengthof a video that is attached with the message, or (iii) an amount ofattention required by the recipient. In one embodiment, the compensationmay also be other virtual points/goods as often use in gaming systems orsearch competitions.

The constraints applying module 314 is configured to verify whether therequired constraints (e.g. computer interpretable constraints and humaninterpreted constraints) are met to send the message to the recipient.The computer interpretable constraints may be but are not limited to (i)a character limit mentioned by the recipient, (ii) does the messageincluding attachments, (iii) is a minimum compensation money attached tothe message, (iv) is the message received from a verified sender, etc.The human interpreted constraints may include whether the message isrelated to a topic of interest to the recipient or not. The recipientcentric messaging system 100 may allow the sender to verify that thecommunication preferences of the recipient are met by the message, and(ii) allows the sender to certify that the message respects therecipient's communication preferences. However, if the recipient reportsthe message as misclassified, inappropriate, or not meeting certainconstraints, the reputation score of the sender is affected adversely.The recipient centric messaging system 100 may enforce constraints basedon regulations that affect the recipient. For example, certaingovernment employees may not be able to receive money or lawyers mighthave other such restrictions. In one embodiment, the recipient is ableto relax one or more of the constraints needed for the sender if thesender known to the recipient outside of the recipient centric messagingsystem 100.

The compensation providing module 316 is configured to transfer thecompensation amount mentioned in the message to the recipient along withthe message. In one embodiment, the sender needs to add money to theirmessaging system account before they can dispatch the message. Thecompensation providing module 316 credits a percentage of thecompensation amount for the message to an account associated with therecipient centric messaging system 100 for facilitating the messagingand for exchange of the compensation money from the sender to therecipient. The compensation providing module 316 may provide someprivileges to the recipient when the recipient invites one or more newusers to the recipient centric messaging system. The privileges mayinclude (a) credit the compensation amount to a recipient centricmessaging system account of the recipient, or (b) providing freemessages to the recipient. The mailbox module 318 is configured tomanage the messages received from the different recipients. Therecipient centric messaging system 100 may be used as the singlecommunication address across all websites, and so it keeps track of theorigin of the message. (e.g., whether it originated on Quora, LinkedIn,Medium etc). In one embodiment, the mailbox module 318 ensures ahigher-quality communications experience between senders and recipientsof messages by providing the recipient with a single place to manage alltheir communication from people outside of their social network.

The message prioritizing module 320 is configured to receive the messagefrom the sender and prioritize the message based on the compensationamount attached with the message. The message prioritizing module 320may order the message in the recipient inbox based on the compensationamount attached with the message. In addition to money, the messageprioritizing module 320 can use other information like whether thesender is known to the recipient, the time the message was received etc.to decide on the ordering. At any time, the user (e.g., the recipient)is free to also sort the messages by other criteria (e.g. unreadmessages, by compensation, by time of arrival etc).

The combined search module 322 is configured to search for therecipients, or the group to send the message. The combined search module322 provides (i) full-text search option to filter theindividuals′/entities' profiles based on any of the text-fields in userprofile (e.g., name or designation of user/recipient), and (ii) facetedsearch option to filter the individual's/entities profiles based onlocation/cities, current or past companies, industry-segments,educational institutions, etc. to narrow down the scope of search. Therefund module 324 is configured to provide choices to the recipients todispose of that compensation money in flexible ways, or automaticallytake action based on default preferences of the user/recipient. Therefund module 324 allows for or provides choices to recipient to (i)return the compensation money to the sender, (ii) donate part ofcompensation money to charity and keep the remaining money forrecipient, and/or (iii) donate all of the compensation money to apreviously selected default charity, or to a freshly selected charityjust for selected message. In one embodiment, the refund module 324automatically donates money to the charity without entering the moneyinto the recipient account of the recipient centric messaging system100. In another embodiment, the money is donated directly by the senderto a charity of the sender's choice. The refund module 324 is configuredto return the money, or part of the money to the sender of the message,if the recipient does not provide attention for a certain passage oftime or does not meet any other criteria specified by the sender.

The functional block diagram 300 further includes a preferences database302, a user information database 305, a message template database 307,and a payment database 309. The preferences database 302 storescommunication preferences for one or more users/recipients. In oneembodiment, the communications preferences may be (i) a simpletext-field indicating areas of interests, (ii) who they wish to connectwith and for what purposes, (iii) a limit of characters or words of textthat could be in message, (iv) a specification whether images areallowed or not and whether attachments allowed or not, etc. In oneembodiment, the preferences are stored in the preferences database 302as rules. The user information database 305 may store information aboutboth “users/people” but also about other possible entities, such asbusinesses or groups that could be both senders and recipients ofcommunications. The user information database 305 stores informationsuch as name, address, picture, email-addresses, phone no,date-of-birth, driver's license number and images, background-picturefor profile page, education history, employment history, links to theperson or entities social networks, etc. The message template database307 stores one or more message template/forms that are used to sendmessages. The one or more templates may include (i) a template that isused to send a personal message, (ii) a template that used to sendbusiness messages, (iii) a template that used to send a message which isbelow 140 words, and (iv) a template that used to send message which ismore than 140 words, (v) a template to send a business plan proposal forfunding, etc. The payment database 309 stores monetary details of thesender and recipient accounts. For example, how much the senders andrecipients have in their messaging system account. The payment database309 may also store how much the sender used for sending the one or moremessages, and how much the recipient received from one or more senders.

The exploded view 300 of the recipient centric messaging system 100further includes a reputation scoring module that is configured todetermine a reputation score for each the sender/recipient in the systemto be able to report/find spam senders, and have an idea of responsiverecipients. In one embodiment, the recipient centric messaging system100 may report the spam senders, and the responsive recipients based on(i) what kind of message the sender sends to the recipients, and (ii)how much time the recipient taken to respond to the sender's message.The reputation scoring module determines the reputation score for thesender based on feedback from the recipient on (i) a priority level ofthe first message, (ii) whether the first message is properly classifiedby the sender (e.g. the message title is a personal message, but themessage may related to promotion or advertisement), and/or (iii) whetherthe message is offensive or inappropriate to the recipient.

The reputation scoring module may determine the reputation score for thesender based on an analysis of a message history of the sender usingpredefined rules based a (a) number of messages sent by the sender tothe recipient, (b) fraction or percentage of messages marked asirrelevant messages by the recipient, and (c) fraction or percentage ofmessages replied to by the recipient. The reputation scoring module maydetermine the reputation score for the sender using a machine learningalgorithm which analyzes a plurality of parameters selected from a groupconsisting of (a) number of messages sent by the sender to one or morerecipients, (b) fraction or percentage of messages replied to by the oneor more recipients, (c) relevance ratings assigned to the messages bythe one or more recipients, (d) length of replies sent by the recipient,and/or (e) sentiment analysis of the messages.

FIGS. 4A-4B illustrates user interface views of creating or updating arecipient profile based on social network accounts according to anembodiment herein. The recipient profile may be updated based on (i) aheadline/summary from a Twitter profile 402, (ii) what type of messagesthe recipient is interested in 404, (iii) what type of messages therecipient is willing to receive 406, (iv) custom categories of messagestypes that can be created by the recipient 407, and/or (iv) a headlineor summary from the recipient's LinkedIn profile 408. FIGS. 4C-4Dillustrates user interface views of specifying recipient preferencesaccording to an embodiment herein. The recipient preferences may include(i) who can message the recipient 410 (e.g., anyone, or, verified users,or only user who pay at least $1), (ii) would the recipient be open toaccepting money for replying to messages 412 (e.g., yes, yes and donateto charity, or No), (iii), a limit of characters or word of text thatcould be in message 416 (e.g., 100, or 150, or 500, etc.), (iv) whetherimages are allowed or not 418 (e.g., allowed, or not allowed), (v) whatkind of attachments are required 420 (e.g., allow PDF, blockimages/videos, etc.,), (vi) whether the messages should be passedthrough a profanity-filter or not 422, (vii) what kind of verificationis required for the sender 424 (e.g., phone verification, twitterverification, LinkedIn verification, credit card account verification),(viii) whether a sender must prove they are human via a captcha 426, and(ix) what are the options for the received money 430 (e.g., donate tocharity, redeem as a gift care, transfer to a bank account). The userinterface views may also present what people are paying the recipientfor 414 (e.g., to represent the importance of the message to sender, orto express their desire to reach the recipient, or to reply to themessage within 7 days), and why the recipient should set a price 428(e.g., to receive only serious messages, and filter out inappropriatecontent).

In one embodiment, the communications preferences may be (i) simpletext-field indicating areas of interests, (ii) who they wish to connectwith and for what purposes, (iii) limit of characters or words of textthat could be in message, (iv) specification whether images are allowedor not and whether attachments allowed or not, (v) categories of messagetypes specified by the recipient potentially with different paymentrequirements by category etc. In another embodiment, the recipientpreference may be (i) a request to fill in information in a particulartemplate (e.g., the recipient centric messaging system 100 requests aparticular format for a business pitch, and (iii) the senders must statehow they know the recipient. In another embodiment, the recipientcommunications preferences may optionally be specified as a logicformula with “AND”, “OR”, “NOT” clauses among the possible constraintsallowed by the system. For example, the recipient may say that thesender must be verified either via Twitter OR via Facebook and thesender must have to verify a mobile number. The user interface views ofthe preferences customization module 304 displays the amount that thesender must attach before sending the message to ensure seriousnessand/or as compensation for time/attention of the recipient. Therecipient's communication preferences are displayed to the sender whenthe sender selects the particular recipient from the messaging systemcontact, or LinkedIn contact, or Facebook contact, etc.

The communication preferences may further include (a) message types,attention units, and revenue share (e.g. whether the recipient receivethe message without payment or not), (b) the recipient requires aminimum stamp to receive the professional message, (c) the recipientreceives the promotional message when the promotional message isattached with minimum of 30 AUs (Attention Units), and (d) donating partof the compensation amount to a charity. In one embodiment, an attentionunit is associated with a fix sum of money (e.g. 50 cents) or virtualgoods.

The sender may be able to view recipient preferences in advance ofsending message to recipient. In one embodiment, blacklists of sendersmay not be made visible to recipient's preferences. The recipient mayenforce a limit to the number of messages that the sender can sendwithout payment (e.g. the recipient may receive 3 messages from thesender without the compensation amount). In an embodiment, the number ofmessages that are allowed to be sent without the compensation amount isdetermined based on the reputation score of the sender. In oneembodiment, the limit to the number of messages may prevent the sendersfrom sending low quality messages to the recipients. The recipient isable to relax all the constraints needed for the sender if the sender isa known person to the recipient outside the recipient centric messagingsystem 100 (e.g. sender may be a colleague, may be a school mate, may bea college mate, etc.).

5A-5B illustrate user interface views of a recipient profile with a listof visible recipient preferences made visible to a sender and options tocontact the sender according to an embodiment herein. In this example, arecipient (e.g. Jane Reed) shows her communication preferences 502 thatshe only accepts messages from verified senders, she is open toaccepting money for replying to messages, and she requires pdfattachments for start-up pitches for example. Further, she may specify acharacter limit to the messages (e.g., 100 characters). She may be opento either accept a personal message 504, or an anonymous comment 506.She may further indicate her areas of interest such as start-up pitches,expertise requests, business opportunities etc. The recipient profilewith the communication preferences may be discovered when the sendersearches and browse for recipient's profiles and selects a particularrecipient (e.g. Jane Reed) from the search results. The sender can viewthe communication preferences and initiate to send the message whenselecting the particular recipient from the search result. The sendermay search for the recipient based on a full-text search” and/or a“faceted search”. The full-text search is used to filter theindividual/entities based on any of the text-fields in user profile,while faceted search takes advantage of known entities (e.g.location/cities, current or past companies, industry-segments,educational institutions, etc.) to narrow down the scope of search.

FIG. 6 illustrates a user interface view of the sender signing up withthe recipient centric messaging system 100 of FIG. 1 using an email or asocial network account according to an embodiment herein. The recipientcentric messaging system 100 may require the sender to sign up when thesender wishes to send a message to a registered user. The user interfaceview illustrates that the sender may sign up using a twitter account602, a LinkedIn account 604, a Facebook account 606, an Email account608, etc. When the user signs up he/she will be able to send and receivethe messages. In one embodiment, the user interface view of the signingup module provides an option to create a new account within therecipient centric messaging system 100 for a new user.

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate user interface views of linking the recipientcentric messaging system 100 of FIG. 1 to the sender's social networkaccounts according to an embodiment herein. The user interface viewsprovide the option to connect a Twitter account, or a LinkedIn accountto the recipient centric messaging system 100. When selecting an allowoption 702, the user grants the recipient centric messaging system 100access to his/her Twitter account messaging system account. Whenselecting a continue option 704, the user grants the recipient centricmessaging system 100 access to his/her LinkedIn account. When selectingrevoke permission option 706, the access to the LinkedIn account isrevoked.

FIG. 8 illustrates a user interface view of the recipient centricmessaging system 100 of FIG. 1 verifying a sender by verifying hismobile phone number (e.g., of the using sender verification module 308)according to an embodiment herein. The user interface view allows thesender to verify the messaging system account by entering a secret code802, which is received through a registered mobile number 804. Afterverification, the sender may access the messaging system to send themessages when selecting a continue option 806. In one embodiment, a skipoption is used to skip the verification process. In one embodiment, theuser interface view of the sender verification module 308 provides acaptcha to check whether the sender is human or not. In anotherembodiment, the sender verification module 308 may send the activationlink to the sender's email to verify the messaging account. Theverification prevents spam and inappropriate messages from beingdelivered to the recipient. In one embodiment, the recipient has theability to specify that the sender is verified using a variety ofmechanisms (e.g. through a secret code send to the mobile, or throughcaptcha, or through sending an activation link to the sender's email,etc.).

FIGS. 9A and 9B illustrate user interface views of a sender using anautomatically generated message form based on the recipient'spreferences to compose a message to the recipient according to anembodiment herein. The message form may be generated when the senderclicks on the unique communication address (e.g., structured as a URL)provided by the recipient centric messaging system 100 (e.g.xyz.com/@JaneReed) which can be freely shared on any website (e.g.LinkedIn, Facebook, Quora, etc). While selecting a URL of the uniquecommunication address from any browser or device, the sender is taken tothe signing-up module to send the message to the recipient. In anembodiment, the recipient centric messaging system automaticallycaptures the URL of the source as metadata to be attached to themessage.

The recipient centric messaging system 100 may keep track of the sourceof the initiation (e.g. source may be from LinkedIn, or Facebook, orQuora, etc.), and show that to the recipient. The recipient centricmessaging system 100 may track the source of the message by tracking thereferrer code supplied by the browser and so can inform the recipient ofthe source of the message. Further, the recipient centric messagingsystem 100 customizes the message form using the source of the messageinitiated using the knowledge of the context. For example, if the uniquecommunication address was shown on medium, the sender could also attachthe title of the story to the message so that the recipient knows thepage that the sender was reading when they decided to send them amessage.

Once the sender is successfully verified and signs-up into the messagingsystem account, the recipient centric messaging system 100 provides themessage form to the sender (e.g. John Smith) to enter the message. Inone embodiment, the recipient centric messaging system 100 shows themessage form along with the preferences and constraints mentioned by therecipient to avoid inappropriate and spam messages. The recipientcentric messaging system 100 may automatically generate the messageforms based on the recipient's preferences. In one embodiment, the userinterface view 900 displays the recipient preferences and constraintswhen selecting a click here option mentioned in FIG. 9A. The userinterface view 900 of the message form provides the following formfields to enter the message: (i) a subject field 902 to write a subjectabout message, (ii) a message field 904 to enter a message relevant tothe recipient's (e.g. Jane Reed) areas of interest within a specifiedcharacter limit (e.g., 100), (iii) an attachment option 906 to attachsay a business plan in a pdf format, and (iv) an option 905 to selectthe category of the message (as specified by the recipient).

The recipient centric messaging system 100 may provide the userinterface view 900 of the message form to the sender when the senderinitiates sending the message from any website (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook,Quora, etc) by selecting the URL of the unique communication addresswhich is shared on the website. In one embodiment, the subject should bewithin the 100-character limit otherwise the message wouldn't bedelivered. In yet another embodiment, the sender must attach a businessplan in a specified pdf format for delivery. After entering the subject,message, and attachment, the sender selects a send option to send themessage to the recipient.

The message is delivered to the recipient inbox only if all requiredconstraints are met. The constraints may be but are not limited to (i) acharacter limit mentioned by the recipient, (ii) is the message relatedto the recipient's topics of interest, (iii) is compensation moneyattached to the messages, (iv) is the message received from a verifiedsender, etc. The recipient centric messaging system 100 enforcesconstraints set by the recipient and may also enforce system specifiedconstraints. For example, certain government employees may not be ableto receive money or lawyers might also have other such restrictions.These could be specified as system constraints.

FIG. 9B shows a message form, which is used to send the messages to therecipient from the messaging system account. The user interface view 907of the message form provides the following form fields to enter themessage: (i) a user id field 908 to enter a user id of the recipient towhom the message is sent, (ii) a subject field 910 to write a subject ofmessage, (ii) a message field 912 to enter a message that may berelevant to the recipient (e.g. Jane Reed), (iii) an attachment option914 to attach any business plan or similar documents specified by therecipient, etc. The sender selects a send option to send the message tothe recipient after entering the user id, subject, and message. In oneembodiment, the sender can select the user id of the recipient using adropdown menu. In another embodiment, the dropdown menu includes one ormore recipients' user ids, which are already there in the sender'scontact list. In yet another embodiment, the user interface views of themessage forms show the sender that the recipient is verified, so thatthere is no fraud by someone else posing as the recipient (e.g., JaneReed).

FIG. 10 illustrates a user interface view of the recipient centricmessaging system 100 of FIG. 1 computing and suggesting compensationamounts to the sender based on what other people have bid to increasethe priority of the message within the recipient's inbox according to anembodiment herein. The recipient centric messaging system 100 maydetermine a current placement of the sender's message in the recipient'sinbox (e.g. it is currently placed 12th in recipient's inbox), based onthe amounts associated with messages that placed higher, dynamicallyprovides a suggestion to the sender in real time that if you want yourmessage to move up to the top 10 messages you need to pay an additional$3, or if you want your message to move to the top position, you need topay $25 to the recipient. The user interface view indicates why thesender should attach money to the messages with reasons and terms suchas (i) your message shows up prominently in Jane Reed's inbox therebyincreasing the likelihood of getting a response, (ii) offering paymentshows that you value Jane Reed's time, and appreciate a response, (iii)you are paying for a response to your message—a “thank you, but I'm notinterested” is a perfectly valid response, and (iv) If Jane Reed doesnot reply within 7 days, you will get a full refund. When selecting“yes” the sender may able to add compensation money to move his messageto the top 10, or to a top message, for example. In one embodiment, incase where money is attached to the message, if the recipient does notprovide attention for a certain passage of time, the money is returnedto the sender of the message.

FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate user interface views of a conversationscreen within the inbox of the recipient illustrating conversationoptions and compensation amounts to be claimed according to anembodiment herein. The user interface view (e.g., of the mailbox module318) includes an inbox tab 1102 to display the one or more messagesreceived from one or more users (i.e. senders) along with a cumulativevalue of the money associated with these messages and display each ofthe messages in the inbox of the recipient along with the compensationamounts attached with each of the messages. In one embodiment, themailbox module 318 displays the received message along with the sendername, sender designation, etc. The user interface view of the mailboxmodule 318 displays the message with the highest compensation associatedwith it as top message in the inbox tab 1102.

For example, as shown in FIG. 11A, John Smith's message is displayed asthe top message if John Smith attached compensation higher than othersenders (e.g., $25). While selecting the message, the mailbox module 318displays the full message that is received from the sender (e.g., JohnSmith). In one embodiment, the user interface view of the mailbox module318 provides a sort option to prioritize the messages based on thecompensation attached with the messages. In another embodiment, the userinterface view of the mailbox module 318 automatically prioritizes themessages based on the compensation money attached with the messages. Therecipient centric messaging system 100 provides UX indicators to tellthe recipient how much money he/she will get by replying to messages intheir mailbox module 318 and how many messages the recipient with someindicator of the time required as well.

In one embodiment of the system, the mailbox includes tags 1109 thatrepresent the categories specified by the recipient. These tags can beused as filters to only show the messages that are part of thatcategory.

The user interface view further includes (i) a sponsored message tab1104 to display sponsored messages, and (ii) an anonymous message tab1106 to display anonymous messages which is received from the one ormore senders. It may display a total amount of money 1108 available inthe recipient's messaging system account and sorts the messages in orderof decreasing amount of money, or a combination of money and othercriteria (e.g., known to the recipient, relevance of topic etc.). Themailbox module 318 may filter the messages by the source (e.g., allmessages that originated from people who found your messaging systemaddress from Quora, or LinkedIn, or Twitter, etc). For example, themailbox module 318 shows the messages in one category if the source ofthe message is LinkedIn, and it shows the messages in another categoryif the source of the message is Twitter, etc. The mailbox module 318 mayfurther indicate the category of the messages (e.g., personal message,sponsored message, request for meeting, business pitch etc.) based onthe recipient preferences. In one embodiment, the mailbox module 318includes a filter to filter for only personal messages, business pitchesetc. The mailbox module 318 shows the profiles of the senders and theamount of messages received from each sender.

The user interface view provides a reply option to send a reply messageto the sender. The user interface view displays the conversation betweenthe sender and the recipient (e.g., between John Smith and Jane Reed, asshown in FIG. 11B). It displays a first message 1110 received from thesender and a corresponding first reply 1112 of the recipient, and acorresponding second message 1114 received from the sender and so on. Inone embodiment, the mailbox module 318 allows the recipient to send areply (e.g., the first reply 1112) to the sender's message, and for thesender to respond to those replies (e.g., the second message 1114) in aconversation centric way. The user interface view of the mailbox module318 provides one or more conversation options to the recipient tocontrol the next step. The one or more conversation options include (i)end the conversation 1116 so that the sender has to start theconversation again to send a next message to the recipient, (ii) anability to return money to the sender 1118 if the sender is known to therecipient outside the recipient centric messaging system 100 (e.g., acolleague, school mate, college mate, etc.), (iii) an ability to blockthe sender 1120 if the recipient received any unwanted/inappropriatemessage from the sender, and (iv) to report the message as spam 1122 ifthe message is irrelevant or inappropriate.

In one embodiment, once the recipient ends the conversation, whereby thenext time the “sender” wishes to send a message to the same “recipient”the sender would be subject to all of the rules associated with startinga new conversation, such as making a payment to the recipient. In oneembodiment, when the conversation is ended, the sender has to start anew conversation paying again for the new message. In one embodiment,the mailbox module 318 of the recipient centric messaging system 100provides a feedback mechanism where the recipient can rate the sender(for example, mark their message as spam). This allows the recipientcentric messaging system 100 to take appropriate action (e.g., to blockfuture messages from that particular sender).

In one embodiment, the recipient centric messaging system 100 allows therecipients to gain privileges in the system based on their investment inthe system. For example, the recipient centric messaging system 100provides them additional free messages for every person they invite tothe system. In another embodiment, the recipient centric messagingsystem 100 may credit a monetary equivalent that can be redeemed throughmessages that require payment in exchange for inviting new persons tothe recipient centric messaging system 100. In case money is attached tothe message, the system provides choices to the recipient to dispose ofthat money in flexible ways, or automatically taking action based ondefault preferences that the user has set for such purposes. Forexample, (i) Return money to the sender, (ii) donate part money tocharity and keep rest for themselves, (iii) Donate all of the money topreviously selected default charity, or to a freshly selected charityjust for this message, and (iv) automatically donating all of the moneyto charity without the money actually entering the recipient's accounton the system, so that there are no tax filing consequences generatedfor the recipient.

The embodiments disclose a recipient centric messaging system 100 wherethe system can enforce recipient constraints around their preferences,compensation for their attention and the ability to share theircommunication address freely without fear of spam. Existing messagingsystems like email have no way of enforcing such recipient constraintssince the existing protocols have no way of enforcing such constraintsand all the existing client applications don't respect these as well.The recipient centric messaging system 100 enables enforcing recipientcentric preferences that may allow recipients to indicate who mightcontact them, about what, on their terms, and valuing their attention.It may also provide a universal public communications address (e.g.,just like an email address) that people can share with everyone and poston any public website without fear of spam and/or inappropriatemessages.

FIG. 12 illustrates a user interface view of a recipient profile thatdisplays the communication preferences of the recipient according to anembodiment herein. The recipient profile displays the message rules(e.g. the communication preferences, as shown in FIG. 12A) specific tothe particular recipient in one embodiment that includes that (a) therecipient only accepts messages with a minimum compensation amount, (b)the recipient only receives messages from verified senders, (c) therecipient requires a minimum stamp for professional messages, (d) therecipient require a standard stamp (e.g. 30 AUs) for promotionalmessages, and/or (e) that the recipient allows the attachments in themessages.

FIG. 13 illustrates a user interface view of a customized message formfor sending the message to the recipient according to an embodimentherein. The sender may compose the message for the recipient using thecustomized message form for the recipient. The customized message formis automatically generated by the recipient centric messaging systembased on the communication preferences of the recipient. The userinterface view allows the sender to self-certify that whether themessage is related to a promotional message or not, or whether itcomplies with the recipient's preferences. The user interface viewallows the sender to set the importance of the message as Normal,Important, or Priority. If the sender set the message as a normalmessage, the sender may need to attach the minimum compensation amount(e.g. 0.50$). If the sender sets the message as an important message,the sender may need to attach 2.50$ as the compensation amount. If thesender sets the message as priority message, the sender may need toattach 5.0$ as the compensation amount for the recipient. If therecipient does not reply to the message within a week, the compensationamount is returned to the sender account. The user interface view allowsthe sender to send the message to the recipient when the sender selectsa box that confirms that the message respects the recipientcommunication preferences.

FIGS. 14A and 14B illustrate user interface views of the recipientcentric messaging system 100 of FIG. 1 for determining a reputationscore for the sender based on feedback from a recipient according to anembodiment herein. The recipient centric messaging system 100 maydetermine the reputation score for the sender based on feedback from therecipient on (i) a priority level of the message, (ii) whether themessage is properly classified by the sender, and/or (iii) whether themessage is offensive or inappropriate to the recipient. The sender mayreport to the recipient centric messaging system 100 that the messagesent by the sender is promotional or an offensive message. The relevanceof the message for the recipient is rated as Low, Medium or High (asshown in FIG. 14A) by the recipient. The relevance rating will in turninfluence the reputation score of the sender. If the reputation scorefor the sender is below the threshold reputation score, the sender isnot allowed to sending free messages. The recipient may rate the messageas high relevance when the message is relevant to a topic of interestand the recipient centric messaging system 100 allows such messages fromthe recipients in the future. The recipient may report the message aspromotional when the message intended for recruiting, marketing,advertising, or sales and the sender should be penalized for notproperly identifying that the message sent was promotional.

FIG. 14A depicts a conversation between the sender and the recipient.For example, John Smith may send the first message to Jane Reed about astart-up pitch (e.g. Hi Jane. I have attached my Start-up Pitch in PDFformat. Please share your feedback.). John Smith must attach acompensation amount for the first message if Jane Reed specified in hercommunication preferences that she only receives messages if a minimumcompensation amount attached. Jane Reed sends a reply message to JohnSmith in a conversation thread. Jane Reed may end the conversation whenJohn Smith sends a second message that she consider irrelevant. Further,Jane Reed may mark the priority of the second message as low, which mayreduce the reputation score of John Smith.

FIGS. 15A and 15B are flow diagrams illustrating a method ofcommunicating at least one message between the sender and the recipientusing a communications protocol over a data network through therecipient centric messaging system 100 according to an embodimentherein. At step 1502, the recipient centric messaging system 100receives the communication preferences specified by the recipient thatincludes computer interpretable constraints required to be met fordelivery of a first message and human interpreted constraints when therecipient creates or updates a profile on the recipient centricmessaging system 100. At step 1504, the recipient centric messagingsystem 100 publishes the profile with a set of visible preferences fromthe communication preferences of the recipient that are visible to thesender when the sender selects the recipient to send a message. At step1506, the recipient centric messaging system 100 processes a requestreceived from the sender to send the first message to the recipient. Atstep 1508, the recipient centric messaging system 100 generates acustomized message form based on the communication preferences of therecipient to enable the sender to compose the first message to complywith the communication preferences. At step 1510, the recipient centricmessaging system 100 provides an indication to the sender if any of theconstraints are not met. At step 1512, the recipient centric messagingsystem 100 requests the sender to certify that at least visiblepreferences out of the human interpreted preferences are satisfied bythe message before sending the message. If the recipient reports thatthe sender has wrongly certified at least one of the visiblepreferences, the recipient centric messaging system 100 blocks thesender from sending further messages to the recipient, or reduces atleast one of (a) a reputation score of the sender, or (b) privileges ofthe sender. The privileges may include free messages provided to therecipient. At step 1514, the recipient centric messaging system 100delivers the first message to the recipient if and only if all thecomputer interpretable constraints specified in the communicationpreferences of the recipient and any constraints applied by therecipient centric messaging system are met by the first message.

FIG. 16 illustrates an exploded view of the personal communicationdevice having a memory 1602 having a set of computer instructions, a bus1604, a display 1606, a speaker 1608, and a processor 1610 capable ofprocessing a set of instructions to perform any one or more of themethodologies herein, according to an embodiment herein. In oneembodiment, the receiver may be the personal communication device. Theprocessor 1610 may also enable digital content to be consumed in theform of video for output via one or more displays 1606 or audio foroutput via speaker and/or earphones 1608. The processor 1610 may alsocarry out the methods described herein and in accordance with theembodiments herein.

Digital content may also be stored in the memory 1602 for futureprocessing or consumption. The memory 1602 may also store programspecific information and/or service information (PSI/SI), includinginformation about digital content (e.g., the detected information bits)available in the future or stored from the past. A user of the personalcommunication device may view this stored information on display 1606and select an item of for viewing, listening, or other uses via input,which may take the form of keypad, scroll, or other input device(s) orcombinations thereof. When digital content is selected, the processor1610 may pass information. The content and PSI/SI may be passed amongfunctions within the personal communication device using the bus 1604.

The stored design is then converted into the appropriate format (e.g.,GDSII) for the fabrication of photolithographic masks, which typicallyinclude multiple copies of the chip design in question that are to beformed on a wafer. The photolithographic masks are utilized to defineareas of the wafer (and/or the layers thereon) to be etched or otherwiseprocessed. The resulting integrated circuit chips can be distributed bythe fabricator in raw wafer form (that is, as a single wafer that hasmultiple unpackaged chips), as a bare die, or in a packaged form. In thelatter case the chip is mounted in a single chip package (such as aplastic carrier, with leads that are affixed to a motherboard or otherhigher level carrier) or in a multichip package (such as a ceramiccarrier that has either or both surface interconnections or buriedinterconnections). In any case the chip is then integrated with otherchips, discrete circuit elements, and/or other signal processing devicesas part of either (a) an intermediate product, such as a motherboard, or(b) an end product. The end product can be any product that includesintegrated circuit chips, ranging from toys and other low-endapplications to advanced computer products having a display, a keyboardor other input device, and a central processor.

The embodiments herein can take the form of, an entirely hardwareembodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment includingboth hardware and software elements. The embodiments that areimplemented in software include but are not limited to, firmware,resident software, microcode, etc. Furthermore, the embodiments hereincan take the form of a computer program product accessible from acomputer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code foruse by or in connection with a computer or any instruction executionsystem. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable orcomputer readable medium can be any apparatus that can comprise, store,communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or inconnection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or apropagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include asemiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computerdiskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), arigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of opticaldisks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compactdisk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD. A data processing system suitable forstoring and/or executing program code will include at least oneprocessor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through asystem bus. The memory elements can include local memory employed duringactual execution of the program code, bulk storage, and cache memorieswhich provide temporary storage of at least some program code in orderto reduce the number of times code must be retrieved from bulk storageduring execution.

Input/output (I/O) devices (including but not limited to keyboards,displays, pointing devices, remote controls, etc.) can be coupled to thesystem either directly or through intervening I/O controllers. Networkadapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processingsystem to become coupled to other data processing systems or remoteprinters or storage devices through intervening private or publicnetworks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of thecurrently available types of network adapters.

A representative hardware environment for practicing the embodimentsherein is depicted in FIG. 17. This schematic drawing illustrates ahardware configuration of an information handling/computer system inaccordance with the embodiments herein. The system comprises at leastone processor or central processing unit (CPU) 10. The CPUs 10 areinterconnected via system bus 12 to various devices such as a randomaccess memory (RAM) 14, read-only memory (ROM) 16, and an input/output(I/O) adapter 18. The I/O adapter 18 can connect to peripheral devices,such as disk units 11 and tape drives 13, or other program storagedevices that are readable by the system. The system can read theinventive instructions on the program storage devices and follow theseinstructions to execute the methodology of the embodiments herein.

The system further includes a user interface adapter 19 that connects akeyboard 15, mouse 17, speaker 24, microphone 22, and/or other userinterface devices such as a touch screen device (not shown) or a remotecontrol to the bus 12 to gather user input. Additionally, acommunication adapter 20 connects the bus 12 to a data processingnetwork 25, and a display adapter 21 connects the bus 12 to a displaydevice 23 which may be embodied as an output device such as a monitor,printer, or transmitter, for example.

The recipient centric messaging system 100 may provide a single publiccommunication address to be used on any public website and keeps thecontext of the messages received from different websites (e.g., a usermight have a LinkedIn address, a reddit address, a craigslist address, acontact form on a blog etc., and they have to check their messagesacross all of these sites).

The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fullyreveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, byapplying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for variousapplications such specific embodiments without departing from thegeneric concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modificationsshould and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and rangeof equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood thatthe phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose ofdescription and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodimentsherein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, thoseskilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can bepracticed with modification within the spirit and scope of the appendedclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of communicating at least one messagebetween a sender and a recipient using a communications protocol over adata network through a recipient centric messaging system, comprising:receiving, at the recipient centric messaging system, communicationpreferences specified by said recipient that comprise (a) computerinterpretable constraints required to be met for delivery of a firstmessage and (b) human interpreted constraints when said recipientcreates or updates a profile on said recipient centric messaging system;publishing said profile, on the recipient centric messaging system, witha set of visible preferences from said communication preferences of saidrecipient that are visible to said sender when said sender selects saidrecipient to send a message; the recipient centric messaging systemprocessing a request received from said sender to send said firstmessage to said recipient; the recipient centric messaging systemgenerating a customized message form based on said communicationpreferences of said recipient to enable said sender to compose saidfirst message to comply with said communication preferences; therecipient centric messaging system receiving the first message sentusing the customized form; the recipient centric messaging systemdynamically assessing whether any of said computer interpretableconstraints and human interpreted constraints are not met using (a)natural-language processing upon user-profiles including communicationspreferences of both said sender and said recipient and (b) amachine-learning based reputation-and-penalty scoring system based onall prior messages sent by said sender to a plurality of users and anyassociated responses, wherein the dynamically assessing comprises: therecipient centric messaging system dynamically processing said firstmessage to determine if (a) all said computer interpretable constraints,which include a reputation score of said sender and (b) any penaltiesassigned by the recipient centric messaging system to said sender aresatisfied by said first message; and the recipient centric messagingsystem delivering said first message over said data network using saidcommunications protocol to said recipient if and only if all saidcomputer interpretable constraints specified in said communicationpreferences of said recipient and any reputation-constraints applied bysaid recipient centric messaging system are met by said first message,wherein said recipient centric messaging system is integrated with anemail service via an email-proxy-server capable of implementing anycomputer interpretable constraints, human interpreted constraints, andreputation-constraints required or imposed by the recipient centricmessaging system.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said communicationpreferences comprise multiple categories of communications that are setup by said recipient based on (a) properties of senders, or (b)properties of communicated content, wherein different constraints arespecified by said recipient for different categories of communications,and wherein said communications preferences are specified as a logicformula with (a) AND, (b) OR, and (c) NOT operators separatingconstraints, and wherein communications preferences comprise at leastone of: (i) a limit on a number of characters in said message, (ii) aspecification on whether images or attachments are allowed or not, (iii)a compensation amount that is required for delivery of said message,(iv) a threshold reputation score of said sender required for deliveryof said message, and (v) a volume of message traffic received by saidrecipient that is associated with a category of communication selectedfrom said different categories of communications.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein a compensation amount is suggested by said recipient centricmessaging system based on at least one of (i) amounts associated withexisting messages received by said recipient and priorities of saidexisting messages in order to increase a priority of said message forsaid recipient, (ii) one or more properties of content associated withsaid message, wherein said one or more properties of content comprises alength of a video that is attached with said message, and (iii) anamount of attention required by said recipient.
 4. The method of claim3, wherein said compensation amount comprises virtual currency selectedfrom at least one of (a) points and (b) virtual goods.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: requesting said sender to certify that atleast visible preferences out of said human interpreted preferences aresatisfied by said message before sending said message, wherein if saidrecipient reports that said sender has wrongly certified at least one ofsaid visible preferences, said recipient centric messaging system blockssaid sender from sending further messages to said recipient, or reducesat least one of (a) said reputation score of said sender, and (b)privileges of said sender, wherein said privileges comprise freemessages provided to said recipient.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: allowing a limited number of free messages within a giventime period if said sender and said recipient (a) share the same almamater, or (b) said sender and said recipient previously worked for thesame employer.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said constraintsapplied by said recipient centric messaging system comprise a limit to anumber of messages that said sender can send without a compensationamount, wherein said number of messages that are allowed to be sentwithout said compensation amount is determined based on one or more of(a) said reputation score of said sender, and (b) a regulationapplicable to said recipient for receiving compensation.
 8. The methodof claim 2, wherein said communication preferences comprise anindication that one or more of said computer interpretable constraints,human interpreted constraints, and reputation-constraints are notenforced on one or more senders or types of senders.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein said request is received from said sender to send saidfirst message when said sender selects a URL of a unique communicationaddress associated with said recipient within said recipient centricmessaging system from a source outside of said recipient centricmessaging system, said method further comprising: verifying whether saidsender is logged on to said recipient centric messaging system or not;and enabling said sender to login to said recipient centric messagingsystem if said sender is not already logged in to said recipient centricmessaging system, wherein said recipient centric messaging systemautomatically captures a URL of said source as metadata to be attachedto said first message, and generates said customized message form basedon said communication preferences of said recipient on selecting saidURL once said sender is logged in to said recipient centric messagingsystem.
 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising: filtering andclassifying said messages in an inbox of said recipient in saidrecipient centric messaging system based on said URL of said sourceoutside of said recipient centric messaging system.
 11. The method ofclaim 2, further comprising: delivering said first message to saidrecipient if and only if a minimum compensation amount is attached withsaid first message; and returning at least a part of said compensationamount to said sender when said recipient does not send a reply to saidmessage within a predefined period of time.
 12. The method of claim 2,wherein said recipient centric messaging system does not deliver saidfirst message to said recipient if said reputation score of said senderis less than said threshold reputation score specified in saidcommunication preferences.
 13. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: verifying said message and when at least one of said humaninterpreted constraints specified in said communication preferences orsaid computer interpretable constraints specified by said recipientcentric messaging system are not met by said message, not deliveringsaid message, notifying said sender that at least one of said humaninterpreted constraints and said computer interpretable constraints isnot met, and enabling said sender to modify said message to meet saidhuman interpreted constraints and said computer interpretableconstraints.
 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising: processing afirst reply from said recipient to said first message; and crediting afirst compensation amount associated with said first message by saidsender to said recipient only when said recipient sends said first replyto said sender.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:processing a request from said recipient to end a conversation betweensaid sender and said recipient; and disabling an option for said senderto reply to or to send another message in a current conversation threadthat comprises said first message and said first reply in response tosaid request to end said conversation.
 16. The method of claim 1,further comprising: notifying said recipient about said message bysending an email when said recipient receives said first message on saidrecipient centric messaging system from said sender, wherein saidrecipient centric messaging system sends one notification for aplurality of emails that are specific to said recipient.
 17. The methodof claim 16, further comprising providing an option to said recipient tosend an email reply to said first message directly from said emailservice using a reply button that is associated with said email and aprotocol, wherein said email reply first goes to said email-proxy-serverand is routed to said recipient centric messaging system when saidrecipient selects said reply button.
 18. The method of claim 17, whereinsaid email-proxy-server receives said email from said email service andparses (a) details of said recipient within said recipient centricmessaging system, and (b) a type of message received from said sender,wherein said email-proxy-server further (a) identifies what message saidemail is in response to, (b) decides whether any compensation isrequired to send a reply, and (c) generates an interface to compose andsend said reply to said received email using an application programminginterface (API) of the recipient centric messaging system.
 19. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: deleting a message from saidrecipient centric messaging system in response to selection of a rejectbutton that is associated with said recipient centric messaging system,wherein said recipient is not credited any compensation attached withsaid message when said message is rejected.
 20. One or morenon-transitory computer readable storage mediums storing one or moresequences of instructions for communicating at least one message betweena sender and a recipient using a communications protocol over a datanetwork through a recipient centric messaging system, which whenexecuted by one or more processors, cause: receiving, at the recipientcentric messaging system, communication preferences specified by saidrecipient that comprise (a) computer interpretable constraints requiredto be met for delivery of a first message and (b) human interpretedconstraints when said recipient creates or updates a profile on saidrecipient centric messaging system; publishing said profile, on therecipient centric messaging system, with a set of visible preferencesfrom said communication preferences of said recipient that are visibleto the sender when said sender selects said recipient to send a firstmessage; the recipient centric messaging system processing a request,received from said sender, to send said first message to said recipient;the recipient centric messaging system generating a customized messageform based on said communication preferences of said recipient to enablesaid sender to compose said first message to comply with saidcommunication preferences; the recipient centric messaging systemreceiving the first message sent using the customized form; therecipient centric messaging system receiving the first message sentusing the customized form; the recipient centric messaging systemdynamically assessing whether any of said computer interpretableconstraints and human interpreted constraints are not met using (a)natural-language processing upon user-profiles including communicationspreferences of both said sender and said recipient and (b) amachine-learning based reputation-and-penalty scoring system based onall prior messages sent by said sender to a plurality of users and anyassociated responses, wherein the dynamically assessing comprises: therecipient centric messaging system dynamically processing said firstmessage to determine if (a) all said computer interpretable constraints,which include a reputation score of said sender and (b) any penaltiesassigned by the recipient centric messaging system to said sender aresatisfied by said first message; the recipient centric messaging systemdelivering said first message over said data network using saidcommunications protocol to said recipient if and only if all saidcomputer interpretable constraints specified in said communicationpreferences of said recipient and any reputation-constraints applied bysaid recipient centric messaging system are met by said first message;the recipient centric messaging system processing a first reply to saidmessage from said recipient by publishing a conversation screen thatcomprises said first message received from said sender and said firstreply message of said recipient; and the recipient centric messagingsystem crediting a compensation associated with said first message bysaid sender to a payment recipient specified by said recipient in saidcommunication preferences, wherein said recipient centric messagingsystem is integrated with an email service via an email-proxy-servercapable of implementing any computer interpretable constraints, humaninterpreted constraints, and reputation-constraints required or imposedby the recipient centric messaging system.
 21. The one or morenon-transitory computer readable storage mediums of claim 20, furthercomprising: the recipient centric messaging system requesting saidsender to certify that at least visible preferences out of said humaninterpreted preferences are satisfied by said message before sendingsaid message, wherein if said recipient reports that said sender haswrongly certified at least one of said visible preferences, saidrecipient centric messaging system blocks said sender from sendingfurther messages to said recipient, or reduces at least one of (a) areputation score of said sender, and (b) privileges of said sender,wherein said privileges comprise free messages provided to saidrecipient.
 22. A recipient centric messaging system for communicating atleast one message between a sender and a recipient using acommunications protocol over a data network, wherein said recipientcentric messaging system comprises: a memory that stores (i) a databasethat stores (a) a plurality of communication preferences for saidplurality of users, (b) information about said plurality of users, and(c) a plurality of message forms, and (d) monetary details of a senderaccount and a recipient account, and (ii) a set of modules; one or moreprocessors that execute said set of modules, wherein said set of modulescomprises: a preferences customization module, executed by said one ormore processors, that specifies communication preferences that comprisecomputer interpretable constraints for receiving messages from saidsender; a message customization module, executed by said one or moreprocessors, that automatically generates a customized message form basedon said recipient communication preferences to compose a first message,wherein said customized message form is configured to transmit messagescomposed using the customized message form to said recipient centricmessaging system; a preferences displaying module, executed by said oneor more processors, that displays at least one of said communicationpreferences of said recipient to said sender in said customized messageform; a compensation determination module, executed by said one or moreprocessors, that determines said compensation amount to attach with saidfirst message to get attention from said recipient; a constraintsapplying module, executed by said one or more processors, thatdynamically verifies whether said computer interpretable constraints arementioned in said communication preferences are met by said firstmessage and human interpreted constraints to send said first message tosaid recipient using (a) natural-language processing upon user-profilesincluding communications preferences of both said sender and saidrecipient and (b) a machine-learning based reputation-and-penaltyscoring system based on all prior messages sent by said sender to aplurality of users and any associated responses, wherein the dynamicallyassessing comprises the constraints applying module dynamicallyprocessing said first message to determine if (a) all said computerinterpretable constraints, which include a reputation score of saidsender and (b) any penalties assigned by the recipient centric messagingsystem to said sender are satisfied by said first message; and acompensation providing module, executed by said one or more processors,that transfers said compensation amount attached with said first messageto said recipient along with said first message when said first messageis delivered and when said recipient sends a reply to said firstmessage.
 23. The system of claim 22, wherein said compensation providingmodule credits a percentage of said compensation amount for said firstmessage to an account associated with said recipient centric messagesystem for facilitating said messaging and for exchange of saidcompensation amount from said sender to said recipient.
 24. The systemof claim 22, wherein said compensation providing module providesprivileges to said recipient that comprises at least one of (a) credit acompensation amount to a recipient centric messaging system account ofsaid recipient, and (b) provide free messages to said recipient whensaid recipient invite a new user to said recipient centric messagingsystem.
 25. The system of claim 22, wherein said recipient centricmessaging system further comprises: a sender verification module,executed by said processor, that verifies said sender when saidcommunication preferences of said recipient require senders to beverified before sending said first message, wherein said verifyingcomprises at least one of verifying (a) a social network account of saidsender, (b) an email account of said sender, (c) a phone number of saidsender, and (d) personal documents of said sender and not deliveringsaid first message when said sender is not verified, wherein saidrecipient specifies that said sender has to be verified for said firstmessage to be delivered.
 26. The system of claim 22, wherein saidrecipient centric messaging system further comprises: a combined searchmodule, executed by said one or more processors, that searches for saidrecipient based on attributes of said plurality of registered userscomprising (a) a dynamic location of a user, (b) a name or designationof said user, (c) an age and a gender of said user, (d) current or pastcompanies of said user, (e) industry-segments of said user, or (f)educational institutions of said user to send said message, wherein saidcommunication preferences of said recipient is displayed to said senderwhen selecting said recipient to send said message; and a refund module,executed by said one or more processors, that provides choices to saidrecipient to (i) return said compensation money to said sender, (ii)donate part of said compensation money to a charity and keep theremaining money for said recipient, or (iii) donate said compensationmoney to said charity, or to a newly selected charity for said message,wherein said refund module returns said compensation money to saidsender of said first message when said recipient does not provideattention to said first message for a certain passage of time, whereinsaid refund module automatically donates said compensation money to saidcharity without said compensation money entering to a recipient centricmessage system account of said recipient.
 27. The system of claim 22,wherein said recipient centric messaging system further comprises: amessage prioritizing module, executing by said one or more processors,that receives said first message from said sender and prioritizes saidfirst message in said recipient inbox based at least one of (i) whethersaid sender is known to said recipient, and (ii) said compensationamount attached with said first message; a mailbox module, executed bysaid one or more processors, that manages said messages received fromdifferent recipients, wherein said mailbox module determines a currentplacement of said first message in an inbox of said recipient based onsaid compensation amounts associated with other messages in said inbox,wherein said mailbox module (a) determines a cumulative value ofcompensation amounts associated with said messages in said inbox, (b)displays said cumulative value of said compensation amounts associatedwith said messages in said inbox of said recipient, and (c) displayseach of said messages in said inbox of said recipient along with saidcompensation amounts attached with each of said messages, and (d) sortssaid messages in decreased order of said compensation amount associatedwith said messages; and a reputation scoring module, executed by saidone or more processors, that determines a reputation score for saidsender based on feedback from said recipient on at least one of (i) apriority level of said first message, (ii) whether said first message isproperly classified by said sender, and (iii) whether said message isoffensive or inappropriate to said recipient.
 28. The system of claim27, wherein said reputation scoring module further determines saidreputation score for said sender based on an analysis of a messagehistory of said sender using predefined rules based on at least one of(a) a number of messages sent by said sender to said recipient, (b) afraction or percentage of messages marked as irrelevant messages by saidrecipient, and (c) a fraction or percentage of messages replied to bysaid recipient.
 29. The system of claim 22, wherein said recipientcentric messaging system further comprises a reputation scoring modulethat determines a reputation score for said sender using a machinelearning algorithm which analyzes a plurality of parameters selectedfrom a group consisting of (a) a number of messages sent by said senderto one or more recipients, (b) a fraction or percentage of messagesreplied to by said one or more recipients, (c) relevance ratingsassigned to said messages by said one or more recipients, (d) a lengthof replies sent by said recipient, and (e) sentiment analysis of saidmessages.
 30. The system of claim 22, wherein said recipient centricmessaging system comprises a set of application programming interfacesand a protocol that specifies how said sender can send said messages andhow said recipient can receive said messages over said recipient centricmessaging system, wherein said protocol comprises specific requirementsfor honoring said communications preferences, wherein said recipientcentric messaging system displays said communication preferences of saidrecipient and enforces compliance with said communication preferences insaid application programming interface by said sender when said senderselects said recipient to send said message.